History & CultureMental model
Some places matter more than what happened there.
The historian Pierre Nora published "Les Lieux de mémoire" from 1984 to 1992 and coined the site of memory: a place, object or date in which a society's memory condenses. A site of memory tells you less about the event than about what the present needs from it.
Useful: When a date is commemorated, ask which present is explaining itself through it.
Source: en.wikipedia.org