A műemlékek sokszínűsége (A 28. Egri Nyári Egyetem előadásai 1998 Eger, 1998)

Előadások / Presentations - SZILASSY Zoltán: Cultural landscapes: a borderline discipline betwen monument protection and nature protection

years of continuous development, while others have evolved more rapidly, in as little as a couple of decades, as a result of, e.g. a change in land use, building patterns, or farming technology. Yet another type of landscapes reflect an apparently static situation, a particular period in history or a historic transition. But cultural landscapes are never really static, they are dynamic, they live. The nature and the content of interaction may be determined by a number of other circumstances along with the time factor, including topographic, hydrographie, climatic conditions etc. Various technical, social, economic and political factors have also been significant contributors to the shaping of Europe's cultural landscapes. Good examples of the history of human technology may be seen in the Netherlands, as a result of many centuries of water management interventions and the utilisation of wind power (the Kinderdijk-Elshuot mill system was included this year in the World Heritage List). Locks and windmills are significant components of Eastern European landscapes as well. The social, economic and political actors of feudal society also produced their individual, characteristic and unmistakable types of cultural landscapes in Europe, which, more or less altered, are still surviving (like the vast open spaces in North-West Europe or the pastures contoured by enclosures in England). All these landscapes are continuous. A continuous landscape is one that has preserved its active social function linked to the traditional human activities, and that shows ongoing evolution. At the same time, it also shows obvious and significant material evidence of past continuous evolution. Derelict or fossil landscapes are the ones the evolution of which stopped, either unexpectedly or progressively at some point in the past. The characteristic and distinctive evidence of this evolution is, however, still visible in a materialised form. Fossil and derelict cultural landscapes are fewer but well known. They include Stonehenge in the United Kingdom. Outstanding fossil landscapes have been preserved in Cyprus, on the island of Delos and in other parts of Europe. Some landscapes are industrial relics, such as the industrial monuments of the historic town of Goslar in Germany, also part of the World Heritage. Associative cultural landscapes are worthy of protection for their intensive religious, artistic or cultural connotations, rather than their materialised evidence which are insignificant or have been destroyed. The easiest to identify among European cultural landscapes are those designed and created by man. These include gardens and parks, built for aesthetic reasons, and often (although not always) linked to religious or other monumental buildings or ensembles (they were the only assets conservationists used to deal with before). CONDITIONS OF PRESERVING CULTURAL LANDSCAPES Living cultural landscapes may be characterised as the evidences of former lifestyles, of former human activities that have proved viable in modern times as well. The only possible and best way to preserve them is to continue using them actively. Their survival has to be motivated by both social and economic aspects, and the sustained preservation and use of rural landscapes involves some transformations and compromise which have to be accepted as more and more inevitable. Having said that, it would be essential to set a ceiling for the pace of transformation, perceived as one possible tool of safeguarding these landscapes. An honest and pragmatic approach is needed when it comes to the preservation of rural cultural landscapes. Nostalgia should be avoided so far as it is possible. It is questionable whether the protection of rural landscapes as living farming landscapes is feasible when economically speaking they are no longer viable. For unfortunately we nowadays see a large number of historic lifestyles having played a decisive role in