Abstract
City represents a sophisticated complex of time strata, which is to some extent materialized in the current city physique. The traces of the past ages – archaeological relics or ruins – enable us to glimpse lost worlds.
The article analyses how archaeological relics from the time of origin are presented in the fabric of the current city. The ways of displaying are discussed with respect to how they support or urge (re)telling the stories from the distant past of the city.
Two cities and two adjacent small towns were chosen as examples: London with St Albans from the roman times and Prague with Buštěhrad from Middle Ages. A definite sense of place is difficult to be established and recognized.
Hence the importance of the decision, which ruins – which archaeological finds – are to be preserved and displayed. On one hand, the ruins can become fetishized, sense-free assemblies of objects in space, either commodified or aestheticized; on the other, they can become “gates” to the lost worlds of the past.