CULTURAL LANDSCAPE: CHARACTERISTICS, IMPORTANCE, EXAMPLES - ART - 2025

A cultural landscape is an artificial work of art, built by man, from a natural space. UNESCO defines it as “the combined representation of the work of nature and man”. While in the European Landscape Convention of the Council of Europe of the year 2000, it is defined “as the result of the action and interaction of natural and / or human factors”.

It is a very defined territorial space that is related to an event or to a historical or indigenous character, which gives it aesthetic and cultural value. Cultural landscapes, as artistic elements, contain an intangible and symbolic value that speaks, communicates elements of its environment and of the people who live there.

They are spaces that are not always recognized or adequately protected by nearby communities, which is why many of them have been named as Cultural Heritage of Humanity, in order to guarantee their preservation.

The notion of cultural landscape has been the product of a new relationship between man and his environment thanks, in part, to a new awareness of the effects that its action can have on the environment (climate change).

Characteristics of the cultural landscape

The main characteristics of a cultural landscape would be:

• Combines natural action and human action.
• High aesthetic value.
• Symbolic value.
• Organization and structure.
• Historical character.
• It implies a tangible and intangible value.
• It does not have a defined extension; that is, it can be a very large or very small space.
• It can be an industrial place, a park, a garden, a cemetery or a field.

Importance

The importance of cultural landscapes can be appreciated from different perspectives: the economic interest that they can generate, the sense of belonging that they can produce and the symbolic value that they carry.

Cultural landscapes are also important due to the spiritual, not material, dimension of the human being that is influenced by the stimuli that he perceives from his close environment. That is, if that environment is hostile and inhospitable, such will be the stimuli that will influence that human being, and vice versa.

Likewise, a cultural landscape can have a very positive impact on the self-esteem of the community in which it is inserted, because it can generate a high sense of belonging by highlighting in a positive way an aspect of its history or culture.

This is because they are a kind of legacy that reveals historical and cultural aspects of a territory, while expressing the state of that community's relationship with its natural world.

They can be ecological spaces, for recreation and education, that help the community itself to know and understand itself better, therefore they also represent an element of cultural identity that can transcend generations.

The pedagogical or didactic aspect of cultural landscapes lies in the possibility of achieving holistic learning.

These learnings are related to subjects such as geography, natural sciences and history, through activities that promote research, analysis and identification of elements typical of the region in which the landscape is located.

A space of this nature is also economically important for the community, since it can be used as a tourist attraction that generates investment and jobs, thus activating its economy.

In the end, the care of these spaces depends, to a large extent, the quality of life of the people.

Classification of cultural landscapes

Cultural landscapes can be of different types but UNESCO has classified them into three broad categories:

- The landscape designed and created by man intentionally. Gardens and parks built for aesthetic reasons.

– El paisaje orgánicamente evolucionado: aquel que aunque nace por intervención del hombre, evoluciona con y en respuesta a su entorno natural. A su vez se divide en: Relicto (o fósil) y continuo.

– El paisaje cultural asociativo, que como su nombre lo indica alude a asociaciones religiosas, artísticas o culturales.

Ejemplos de paisajes culturales en el mundo

Algunos de los paisajes declarados por la UNESCO como Patrimonio Cultural de la Humanidad son:

• Paisaje cultural y ruinas arqueológicas del Valle de Bamiyan (Afganistán)
• Valle superior del Rin medio (Alemania)
• Parque Muskauer (Alemania)
• Parque Wilhelmshöhe (Alemania)
• Valle de Madriu-Perafita-Claror (Andorra)
• Quebrada de Humahuaca (Argentina)
• Parque Nacional Uluru-Kata Tjuta (Australia)
• Paisaje cultural Hallstatt-Dachstein / Salzkammergut (Austria)
• Paisaje cultural Wachau
• Gobustan Rock Art Cultural Landscape (Azerbaijan)
• Rio de Janeiro: Rio de Janeiro landscape between the mountains and the sea (Brazil)
• Modern ensemble Pampulha (Brazil)
• Landscape of Grand Pré (Canada)
• Ennedi Massif (Chad)
• Lushan National Park (China)
• Mount Wutai (China)
• Hangzhou East Lake (China)
• Honghe Hani rice terraces (China)
• Rock art Zuojiang Huashan (China)
• Coffee cultural landscape of Colombia
• Viñales Valley (Cuba)
• Archaeological landscape of the first coffee plantation in the southeast of Cuba
• Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape (Czech Republic)
• Konso Cultural Landscape (Ethiopia)
• Pyrenees - Mont Perdu (France)
• Jurisdiction of Saint-Emilion (France)
• Gabon (France)
• Hortobágy National Park - the Puszta (Hungary)
• Historic Cultural Landscape of the Tokaj Wine Region (Hungary)
• Þingvellir National Park (Iceland)
• Cultural Landscape of the Province of Bali: the Subak system as a manifestation of the Tri Hita Karana philosophy (Indonesia)
• Bam and its cultural landscape (Iran)
• The Persian Garden (Iran)
• Incense Route - Desert Cities of the Negev (Israel)
• Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the Palmaria, Tino and Tinetto islands (Italy)
• Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula (Italy)
• Monte Sacro of Piedmont and Lombardy (Italy)
• Valle d'Orcia (Italy)
• Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany (Italy)
• Sacred Sites and Pilgrimage Route in the Kii Range Mountain (Japan)
• Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine and its Cultural Landscape (Japan)
• Petroglyphs of the archaeological landscape of Tamgaly (Kasakistan)
• Mijikenda Kaya Sacred Forest (Kenya)
• Ouadi Qadisha (the Holy Valley) and the Forest of Cedars of God (Horsh Arz el-Rab) (Lebanon)
• Royal Summit of Ambohimanga (Madagascar)
• Cultural landscape of Le Morne (Mauritania)
• Agave Landscape and the Ancient Tequila Industry (Mexico)
• Prehistoric caves of Yagul and Mitla in the central valley of Oaxaca (Mexico)
• Orkhon Valley (Mongolia)
• Tongariro National Park (New Zealand)
• Sukur Cultural Landscape (Nigeria)
• Land of Olive Trees and Wines - Southeast Jerusalem Cultural Landscape, Battir (Palestine)
• Rice terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras (Philippines)
• Sintra (Portugal)
• Delta Saloum (Senegal)
• Singapore Botanic Gardens
• Mapungubwe (South Africa)
• Aranjuez (Spain)
• Cultural landscape of the Sierra de Tramuntana (Spain)
• Lavaux Terraces, Vineyard (Swiss)
• Koutammakou, the land of Batammariba (Togo)
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (UK)
• Papahānaumokuākea (United States)
• Industrial landscape Fray Bentos (Uruguay)
• Trang An Complex (Vietnam)
• Matobo Hills (Zimbabwe)

References

1. Álvarez Muñárriz, Luis; (2011). The category of cultural landscape. AIBR. Journal of Ibero-American Anthropology, January-April, 57-80. Recovered from redalyc.org.
2. Hernández, Ana María (2010). The value of the cultural landscape as a didactic strategy. Tejuelo, nº 9 (2010), pp. 162-178 Recovered from: redalyc.org.
3. Sabaté Bel, J. (2011). Cultural landscapes. Heritage as a basic resource for a new development model. Urban, 0 (9), 8-29. Recovered from: polired.upm.es.
4. The cultural landscape foundation (2016). About Cultural Landscapes at National Center for Atmospheric Research. Recovered from: tclf.org.
5. Unesco (s / f). Cultural Landscape. Recovered from unesco.org.