In Search of the Greek Landscape: A Cultural Geography

Abstract

Although Greece was among the first European countries that signed the European Landscape Convention, it has only recently ratified it, while the landscape, generally speaking, has been absent from most expressions of everyday private and public life in Modern Greece. Moreover, irreparable destruction of the Greek landscape, dating back to prehistoric times, has recently been exacerbated through widespread neglect, misuse, or even outright destruction, much accelerated since Greece’s era of rapid urbanization in the 1950s and 1960s. This chapter begins with a brief illustration of trends and facts that point to the problematic relationship of Greek society with its landscapes. It traces the roots of this relationship in the cultural make-up of the Modern Greek nation-state and in a series of historical particularities and social-institutional deficiencies, much amplified during the post-war period. The objective of this chapter is to attempt to understand and explain this shortcoming by exploring the lack of a well-developed landscape conscience in Modern Greece.