Building Local Cultural Landscapes

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.

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:

• Tree-lined rows and hedges

• Memorial trees

• Breeding animals

• Spontaneous urban gardens

• Agricultural crops

• Rural buildings

• Fountains, wash troughs

• Hydro-geo-morphological formations

• Well-loved places

• Small churches, chapels, places, and objects of devotion

• Small historical centers

• Viewpoints

• Minor ruins

• Historical trails and paths

• Terraces and drywall

• 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:

• Feasts, festivals, and celebratory fires

• Products of agricultural transformation

• Music and traditional songs

• Dialects

• 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)

Fig. 1.1

Tree-lined in rows and hedges

Fig. 1.2

Tree-lined in rows and hedges

Fig. 1.3

Tree-lined in rows and hedges

Fig. 1.4

Tree-lined in rows and hedges

Fig. 1.5

Tree-lined in rows and hedges

Fig. 1.6

Tree-lined in rows and hedges

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)

Fig. 1.7

Monumental trees

Fig. 1 8

Monumental trees

Fig. 1.9

Monumental trees

Fig. 1.10

Monumental trees

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.

(Figures 1.11 and 1.12)

Fig. 1.11

Breeding animals

Fig. 1.12

Breeding animals

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)

Fig. 1.13

Urban spontaneous

Fig. 1.14

Urban spontaneous

Fig. 1.15

Urban spontaneous

Fig. 1.16

Urban spontaneous

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)

Fig. 1.17

Agricultural crops

Fig. 1.18

Agricultural crops

Fig. 1.19

Agricultural crops

Fig. 1.20

Agricultural crops

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)

Fig. 1.21

Rural buildings

Fig. 1.22

Rural buildings

Fig. 1.23

Rural buildings

Fig. 1.24

Rural buildings

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)

Fig. 1.25

Fountains, troughs, sinks

Fig. 1.26

Fountains, troughs, sinks

Fig. 1.27

Fountains, troughs, sinks

Fig. 1.28

Fountains, troughs, sinks

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)

Fig. 1.29

Formations hydro-geo-morphological

Fig. 1.30

Formations hydro-geo-morphological

Fig. 1.31

Formations hydro-geo-morphological

Fig. 1.32

Formations hydro-geo-morphological

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)

Fig. 1.33

Places loved

Fig. 1.34

Places loved

Fig. 1.35

Places loved

Fig. 1.36

Places loved

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)

Fig. 1.37

Small churches, chapels, artifacts of devotion

Fig. 1.38

Small churches, chapels, artifacts of devotion

Fig. 1.39

Small churches, chapels, artifacts of devotion

Fig. 1.40

Small churches, chapels, artifacts of devotion

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)

Fig. 1.41

Small historical centers

Fig. 1.42

Small historical centers

Fig. 1.43

Small historical centers

Fig. 1.44

Small historical centers

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)

Fig. 1.45

Viewpoints

Fig. 1.46

Viewpoints

Fig. 1.47

Viewpoints

Fig. 1.48

Viewpoints

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)

Fig. 1.49

Ruins minor

Fig. 1.50

Ruins minor

Fig. 1.51

Ruins minor

Fig. 1.52

Ruins minor

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)

Fig. 1.53

Trails and historical paths

Fig. 1.54

Trails and historical paths

Fig. 1.55

Trails and historical paths

Fig. 1.56

Trails and historical paths

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)

Fig. 1.57

Terraces, dry stone walls, piles of rubble

Fig. 1.58

Terraces, dry stone walls, piles of rubble

Fig. 1.59

Terraces, dry stone walls, piles of rubble

Fig. 1.60

Terraces, dry stone walls, piles of rubble

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.

(Figures 1.61, 1.62, 1.63 and 1.64)

Fig. 1.61

Micro landscapes

Fig. 1.62

Micro landscapes

Fig. 1.63

Micro landscapes

Fig. 1.64

Micro landscapes