Heritage architecture incidence in image formation of the city

The focus of this article is centered on determining the incidence of heritage architecture
within the image formation of Maracaibo. Urban image is the sum of beliefs, impressions
and perceptions that a person or group has of the city; it the way how citizens represent
it in their minds. The importance of this descriptive and applied research is based on the
contributions that studying urban image does to the development of collectivity,
considering that if they are efficiently managed, cities promote their most relevant
features. According to results, the image of Maracaibo is contradictory. Even though it
has valuable and attractive elements that are identified and remembered and, for that
reason, they are part of the memory and identity of the place, it is also true that some
negative elements overlap which disdain and condition city formation. This determinant
aspect considerably affects the image of the city, due to the ambiguity and mistrust
generated by contradictions, when sharing common points of urban image. Therefore,
the city cannot be only characterized by the distinctive dimension which reduce and
minimize the projection that the city has on the perception, in the memory and identity of
people.