| Abstract | Memory studies have been on the increase for several years. But, following the work of the historian Pierre Nora, analysis of the processes involved in the localisation of memories, instigated by Halbwachs, has too often been reduced to a simple study of “places of memory”. The aim of this article is to restore the sociological aspect of the dynamic relationships between memories and places, highlighting in this regard the paradigmatic importance of La Topographie légendaire des évangiles en Terre sainte, from both the methodological and theoretical points of view. Using examples taken from his own research in places where attacks have occurred, and a review of the literature on phenomena of “spontaneous memorialisation”, the author shows that sociological investigations must consider both “what places do to memory” and “what memory does to places”. This involves paying particular attention to the movements, tensions, and conflicts that exist between the “memory of the places” of a past event and the “places of memory” where this event is commemorated, and requires the use of a primarily ethnographic methodology.
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