ABSTRACT
The Norwegian heavy water sabotage at Vemork during WWII, which targeted Nazi Germany’s nuclear ambitions, became a post-war symbol of national resistance. Today, the sabotage operations, along with Rjukan’s industrial history, are central to the area’s destination development, especially since Rjukan-Notodden was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. This chapter examines the creation of heritage tourism spaces, arguing that heritage sites are not static but redefined and staged as tourist attractions. The heritagisation process involves multiple, sometimes conflicting, perspectives on how to present this history and its material elements. Using the ‘multivocality of space’ as a Lefebvrian approach, the chapter focuses on the perspectives of key stakeholders, including antiquarians, architects and tourism entrepreneurs. The aim is to analytically integrate the perspectives of locality and spatiality in heritage studies, focusing on the ‘speaking of/from’ and ‘being in’ heritage sites. To achieve this, the study employs spatial sequence analysis to reveal different perspectives in the Heavy Water Cellar Museum, which opened in 2022. This case study provides a spatial lens on heritage sites and serves as an example of the development of ‘heavy water tourism’ in Rjukan.
