Abstract
The “Plan for Local Cultural Landscapes” (PLCL) presented here is not supposed to be some form of planning with normative value defined by national or regional law but rather a process that consists of several stages and features to direct landscape interventions. The underlying motivation for the construction of a PLCL is that to make quality landscapes (in summary, a beautiful landscape), i.e., the purpose of the objective of a good living, it is necessary and useful to promote and build local processes, namely processes that affect the scale of the small-size landscape. A plan of the local landscape integrates top-down planning by treating assets not identified by the same or the precise details identifying possible interventions on parts of assets identified by institutional planning. Ultimately, a PLCL should not be the instrument capable of arousing, stimulating, and realizing in operational terms the attention and care (i.e., love) of inhabitants for their own territory.
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Notes
- 1.
The proposal comes as a reflection, deepening, and development of the objectives and contents of the project VIVA EASTPART, in particular the proposal contained in it about cultural integrated territorial plans.
- 2.
The European Landscape Convention of 2000 (Florence 2000) gives in the art.1the definition of landscape and art. 2defines the scope of the Convention:
“Art. 1. Definitions. <Landscape> designates a certain portion of territory, as perceived by people, whose character derives from the natural and/or humans and their interrelationships.”
“Art. 2-Scope Subject to the provisions of Art. 15, this Convention applies to the entire territory of the Parties and covers natural, rural, urban and peri-urban. It includes land, inland waters and marine. It concerns landscapes that might be considered outstanding, both the landscapes of everyday life or degraded landscapes.”
- 3.
For some time various parts of planning regulations have invoked a new urban culture capable of addressing the problems of providing adequate urban quality of the new settlements but above all to improve the quality of the existing city that was recently built.
- 4.
See: Paolo Colarossi, “Elementi di estetica urbana,” in: Paolo Colarossi, Pietro Antonio Latini (ed): La progettazione urbana. Vol II: Metodi e materiali, Il Sole 24 Ore, Milan, 2008, pp. 71–430.
- 5.
See the Integrated Territorial Plans Cultural contained in this volume.
- 6.
Inhabit: from Lat. HABITARE (frequentative of HABERE have) in the sense that its worth to continue to have, but more commonly Avercus to mary in a place, dwell (…)”. From Ottorino Pianigiani, “Vocabolario etimologico della lingua italiana,” Publishing House Sonzogno, Milan, 1936.
- 7.
Understand: (…) from lat. COM-prehendere (…) comp. COM = CUM together and prehendere take (…) -Propr. Take together; indi Contain itself; and Fig. Embrace the mind ideas, (…). From Ottorino Pianigiani, op. cit.
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Appendix 1. Suggestions for an Atlas of Municipal Local Cultural Resources
Appendix 1. Suggestions for an Atlas of Municipal Local Cultural Resources
The formation of a municipal atlas of local cultural resources is the first necessary step toward the construction of local cultural landscapes. at the same time, building an atlas is necessary first of all to raise the recognition and awareness on the part of local people of the cultural resources contained in their territory; secondly, it is a tool for the dissemination of their knowledge, and therefore also for the preservation and dissemination of their know-how and growth, attention, interest, affection, and finally care for the local landscapes , which represent one of the factors of local identity as well as one of the factors in the quality of a beautiful landscape.
The purpose of the atlas is mainly for the inhabitants of the area to consciously learn, know, appreciate, and love those places, artifacts, buildings, and traditions that are called “minor assets” just because they have little or no recognition by the institutional planning and thus have little or no place in the narrative of the quality of institutional landscapes. However, these resources are very present, and perhaps defined as “major” in the imagination, mental maps, and narratives of the local inhabitants, they deserve to be considered part of local landscapes as they are perceived by the people.
A review of categories of minor assets, certainly not complete and only as an example, that would be appropriate to consider as a part of the local landscape, might include the following:
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Tree-lined rows and hedges
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Memorial trees
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Breeding animals
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Spontaneous urban gardens
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Agricultural crops
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Rural buildings
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Fountains, wash troughs
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Hydro-geo-morphological formations
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Well-loved places
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Small churches, chapels, places, and objects of devotion
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Small historical centers
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Viewpoints
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Minor ruins
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Historical trails and paths
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Terraces and drywall
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Micro-landscapes
These categories all belong to the physical landscape, or contributing to the shape of the physical landscape, and could be considered components of the shape of the local cultural landscape. To these should be added other categories that, although important in the formation of the overall local cultural landscapes, have a minimal direct impact on the shape of the physical landscape. For example, this includes categories such as:
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Feasts, festivals, and celebratory fires
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Products of agricultural transformation
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Music and traditional songs
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Dialects
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Culinary traditions, etc.
Below, for better clarification of possible assets to be included in a municipal atlas of local cultural resources, we offer a series of sample images, taken from different parts of Europe, displaying example categories of components that shape the local cultural landscape.
1. Tree-lined rows and hedges
Tree-lined rows along roads and paths marked, often far away from the landscape, offer shaded walks and gsreen tunnels of great beauty.
Hedges that enclose the fields build and emphasize the mosaic of crops and determine the fences, which more or less create large or small “rooms” of the landscape.
(Figures 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 and 1.6)
2. Monumental trees
Monumental trees are valued for their size, beauty, and age. They represent real monuments plants to be admired, cared for, and loved.
(Figures 1.7, 1.8, 1.9 and 1.10)
3. Breeding animals
Herds of local breeds of animals are often of great interest, but they should also be protected from the risk of extinction; there may also be a need to reintroduce and develop herds that were abandoned or being abandoned.
4. Spontaneous urban gardens
Floral decorations, small private gardens, examples of paving, trees, or shrubs characteristically prevalent in the urban fabric are the components of a sort of spontaneous “furniture” that comes from traditions and inhabitants’ desire, even from residents’ competition, to produce the beautification of urban space with effects that strongly characterize the landscape of entire urban centers or neighborhoods.
(Figures 1.13, 1.14, 1.15 and 1.16)
5. Agricultural crops
Agricultural crops are often features of local productions or are used for the transformation of local products appreciated facets of the local culture. Some crops are also or cultivated traditional forms, often to great effect, in the landscape for their originality and beauty.
(Figures 1.17, 1.18, 1.19 and 1.20)
6. Rural buildings
Isolated buildings or small groups, built as housing or shelter for animals or storage of products, have a long tradition in Europe and still dot the agricultural landscape where they remain intact with the various criteria for location of the various building types.
(Figures 1.21, 1.22, 1.23 and 1.24)
7. Fountains, troughs, and sinks
Fountains, troughs, and sinks are the architectural disseminators of water dispensed to the local populations. They also represent meeting places and points of social communication.
(Figures 1.25, 1.26, 1.27 and 1.28)
8. Hydro-geo-morphological formations
Rocks with unique mineral colors that form patterns of great beauty, stretches of gravel and sand, gullies, gorges, caves, meandering streams and ditches, small waterfalls, ponds, and lakes are all characteristic features of the beauty of a local landscape.
(Figures 1.29, 1.30, 1.31 and 1.32)
9. Well-loved places
Every village, even small ones, has its special places that are well-loved by the inhabitants because they represent collective community memories; they are places where annual festivals and rituals are held; or they are places for recreation such as meadows, forests, valleys, stretches of banks along streams, or rivers where bathing is allowed.
(Figures 1.33, 1.34 1.35 and 1.36)
10. Small churches, chapels, and artifacts of devotion
Interest in the history of religions, as well as the current practices of devotion, has spread across Europe and includes not only cathedrals and churches but also of small buildings or artifacts that are used in the daily life of the inhabitants.
(Figures 1.37, 1.38, 1.39 and 1.40)
11. Small Historical Centers
Small historical centers may be defined as minimal town centers but still have stories to tell, also perhaps minimal, but that have an important part in the local memory.
(Figures 1.41, 1.42, 1.43 and 1.44)
12. Viewpoints
Viewpoints are high places, from which inhabitants can admire a landscape and recognize, one by one, the places where their daily lives and their life stories take place.
(Figures 1.45, 1.46, 1.47 and 1.48)
13. Minor ruins
Minor ruins include rural buildings, small towers, and artifacts of various kinds, which also tell the stories of a region and are part of the local identity.
(Figures 1.49, 1.50, 1.51 and 1.52)
14. Historical trails and paths
Historical trails and paths, often abandoned and now almost unrecognizable, throughout history have allowed communication between a center and nearby villages, or access to sources, fields to cultivate, and forests from which to cut wood.
(Figures.1.53, 1.54, 1.55 and 1.56)
15. Terraces, dry stone walls, piles of rubble
Terraces, dry stone walls, piles of rubble bear evidence of the hard work of many generations. However, today they are forms and artifacts evocative of great beauty.
(Figures 1.57, 1.58, 1.59 and 1.60)
16. Micro-landscapes
Micro-landscapes are usually small and often enclosed in small deep circular valleys or bordered by hillsides, or they may be steep banks of rivers or streams enclosed by vegetation that form a sort of “room” in the landscape. The onlooker has the perception of being indoors often because their interior is an invisible sign of urbanization. They can also be special places arranged by individual residents to form significant and surprising effects on the landscape.
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Colarossi, P. (2016). Building Local Cultural Landscapes. In: Rotondo, F., Selicato, F., Marin, V., Lopez Galdeano, J. (eds) Cultural Territorial Systems. Springer Geography. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20753-7_13
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