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De la
obiectele de patrimoniu la peisaj
Ulrich LANGE*
Moştenirea
culturală, schimbările
sociale si protejarea vestigiilor istorice
Ne-am obişnuit să
relaţionăm termenul “cultura tradiţională” de zona
rurală şi modelul de viaţă oferit de aceasta, gândind
mediul rural ca valoros păstrător al tradiţiei culturale.
Spre sfârşitul secolului
XVIII, o puternică explozie demografică a generat masive
emigrări în Lumea Nouă, fenomen care, împreună cu reorientarea societăţii spre
industrializare, a determinat deplasarea unei importante părţi a
populaţiei spre zona urbană. Tocmai aceasta “dezrădăcinare”
a generat ulterior interesul pentru aşa numitul “loc de
baştină”, a cărui tradiţie culturală trebuia
păstrată pentru posteritate. Elementele culturii tradiţionale,
adică “vechiul” trebuiau astfel legate de elementele contemporane,
adică “noi”; dar ce este nou şi ce poate fi considerat vechi într-un
peisaj, mai cu seamă în condiţiile în care, în ultimii 50 de ani, o
mare parte a terenurilor agricole au fost împădurite?
De aici, marea problemă
a conservării peisajului istoric cu clădirile şi vechile sale
structuri, şi întrebarea: cum putem păstra dimensiunea istorică
a peisajului?
Primele acte oficiale legate
de protejarea vestigiilor istorice în Suedia datează din secolul XVII
(1666), când s-a emis prima proclamaţie a vechilor monumente sub prerogative
regale şi s-au catalogat primele clădiri (încă din a doua
jumătate a secolului XVI, regele John al treilea restaurase bisericile din
oraşul Sigtuna motivând că sunt cele mai vechi biserici şi
trebuie păstrate).
Amintesc, spre
exemplificare, de căsuţa botanistului Carl Linneaus (1707) din satul
Rashult care este monument istoric (deşi căsuţa în care s-a
născut omul de ştiinţă a ars, construcţia de
cărămidă roşie ridicată in 1731 este asociată cu
Linneaus şi considerată monument) şi care este localizată
într-o zonă împădurită. Revenirea la peisajul original, pentru a
întregi autenticitatea monumentului, ar implica serioase defrişări –
pentru a face vizibil terenul arabil prezent în acea vreme – adică
tăierea unor copaci ce au mai bine de 100 de ani. Astfel apare conflictul
între istorici şi botanişti, aceştia din urmă considerând
acţiunea o ameninţare la adresa biodiversităţii.
Sistemul legislativ,
rezervaţiile naturale, peisajele istorice şi rezervaţiile
culturale
Păstrarea
moştenirii culturale a unei naţiuni este responsabilitatea statului
şi a consiliilor locale.
În Suedia, la nivel
naţional, activează Consiliul Naţional al Patrimoniului, care
are în primul rând rolul de a distribui fondurile alocate, de către
parlament şi guvern, acţiunilor de conservare a patrimoniului.
Acţiunile propriu-zise
se planifică în colaborare cu Administraţiile regionale: in Suedia
acestea sunt în număr de 21 şi sunt în strânsă
legătură cu Consiliul Naţional al Patrimoniului.
Fiecare regiune are şi
un muzeu care primeşte anual fonduri pentru acţiuni de promovare a
patrimoniului cultural şi de susţinere a conservării acestuia.
Din punct de vedere
legislativ, cadrul statutar al protecţiei valorilor culturale suedeze
constă în câteva legi ale parlamentului însoţite de reglementări
guvernamentale.
Principalul instrument
legislativ pentru monumente este Legea Patrimoniului Cultural (1988) sub
incidenţa căreia intră protecţia siturilor şi
monumentelor arheologice, a clădirilor, bisericilor şi obiectelor de
patrimoniu. Legea Proiectării si Construcţiei (1987) conţine
reglementări referitoare la protecţia patrimoniului cultural în
relaţie cu proiectele de sistematizare şi urbanizare.
În ceea ce priveşte
peisajele de importanţă naţională, acestea sunt
identificate şi protejate de Codul Mediului, însă nu este uşor
să se evidenţieze în mod explicit motivele pentru care o zonă
sau alta este considerată patrimoniu naţional. De aceea, simpla
descriere a “conţinutului” peisajului nu este suficientă, ci trebuie
însoţită de argumente.
Parcurile naţionale (în
Suedia în număr de 30, dintre care cele mai mari sunt Sarek şi Padjelanta) şi rezervaţiile naturale
(însumând in jur de 5% din teritoriul ţării) sunt, de asemenea,
protejate prin lege.
Un alt sistem, relativ
recent, de păstrare a moştenirii culturale implică
protecţia zonelor cu valoare atât biologică şi economică
(pajişti, păşuni, terenuri agricole), cât si cu valoare
istorică (vechi garduri de lemn, ziduri din piatră, rigole, cariere
de piatră, vechi hambare şi fânare). Orice mediu natural care
conţine o mare diversitate de elemente cu valoare biologică şi
istorică este considerat valoros. Înainte de intrarea Suediei în Uniunea
Europeană, în cadrul unui program numit Conservarea Peisajului,
autorităţile regionale erau însărcinate cu depistarea,
inventarierea şi studierea peisajelor istorice valoroase. Fermierii care
deţineau sau locuiau pe acele porţiuni de teren erau încurajaţi
– verbal, dar şi financiar – să întreţină peisajul sau
obiectele de valoare care făceau parte din acesta. În 1995, la intrarea Suediei
în Uniunea Europeană, remunerarea în schimbul întreţinerii acestor
zone a fost interzisă pe motiv că toţi fermierii sunt egali, iar
legile nu trebuie să-i avantajeze pe cei din zonele cu valoare
istorică. Astăzi, ei sunt
încurajaţi să încheie acorduri de întreţinere a zonelor istoric
valoroase în concordanţă cu reglementările politicii agricole a
Uniunii Europene, iar din cei 40.000 de fermieri suedezi existenţi la ora
actuală, circa 12.000 s-au alăturat deja acestui sistem.
În afara rezervaţiilor
naturale şi a peisajelor cu valoare istorică despre care am vorbit,
guvernul alocă fonduri (astăzi până la 2 milioane de USD)
şi pentru aşa numitele rezervaţii culturale, până acum în
număr de 15, toate proprietate privată.
Dintre acestea,
Lillhärjĺbygget, situată pe înălţimile Härjedalenului, este
o aşezare sălbatică, biciuită de ierni lungi şi grele,
lipsită de facilităţile lumii moderne (electricitate, căi de
acces), în care mai trăieşte o singură familie; o singură
familie al cărei mod de viaţă este, astăzi, unic în Suedia:
membrii ei sunt fermieri şi supravieţuiesc din vânzarea
brânzeturilor, a cherestelei şi, o dată pe an, a unuia sau doi
viţei. O asemenea economie unicat, bazată de mica producţie
proprie, a făcut din Lillhärjĺbygget rezervaţie culturală.
Un alt exemplu este
Västeräng: o fermă tradiţională cu extraordinare clădiri
istorice, emblematică pentru peisajul rural din regiune. Proprietarul
acesteia nu poate, însă, investi în noi hambare şi grajduri pentru
animale iar cele vechi, unele chiar din secolul XVI, nu mai fac faţă
solicitărilor actuale. Din fericire, Västeräng, împreună cu ferma de
vară situată la circa 10 km de sat, a fost declarată
rezervaţie culturală, fondurile alocate fiind, pentru început,
investite într-un nou grajd.
A treia zonă
interesantă, dar care nu a devenit încă rezervaţie
culturală, este Svaneholm, situată într-o regiune cu productivitate
mare în care, în secolul XVIII, cea mai mare parte a pământului era
proprietatea nobilimii. În 1790 baronul Rutger Macklean, proprietarul
Svaneholmului, a iniţiat o reformă a pământului care a devenit
un model pentru tot peisajul agricol al Suediei anilor 1800. Chiar dacă
este vorba despre un peisaj “modern”, fără valori naturale, Svaneholm
păstrează încă planul original al celui care, într-o manieră
simbolică, a iniţiat revoluţia agrară în Suedia.
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From Historic Objects into Landscapes
Ulrich LANGE*
CULTURAL
HERITAGE AND SOCIAL CHANGE
Protecting
traditional culture in a world that is undergoing fast and sweeping changes is
a question that can be looked at from several different perspectives. One
important factor in this process is the relations between urban and rural
areas.
As a rule,
the term “traditional culture” has a demo-geographic meaning, in the sense that
traditional culture is often understood as something tied to, and rooted in,
the rural areas and its patterns of life. For this reason one could say that if
traditional culture is to be preserved in other forms than as museums, for
example, the society must act to enable people to continue living and working
in rural areas.
The mid
and late 1800s was a period of great change in Sweden. Steep increases in the
population created a desire for land in a society whose economy mainly depended
on agricultural production. When the homeland no longer could support its
peoples, many chose to emigrate. Approximately 1.2 two million Swedes left the
country, mainly for the New World. To understand the impact of this the number
it has to be seen in relation to the contemporary population, which included
just about 4 million people. At the same time, the broad reorientation toward
an industrialized society was taking place. And this, among other things, brought
with it the relocation of a large part of the population from rural areas to
towns.
It is
perhaps in this context that the growing interest in the, lets say ones
native-place and its traditional culture, really awakened for the first time,
with local historical societies and museums to save what could be saved for
posterity.
Another
question of cultural heritage is highly linked to the idea of something new
in relation to something old. This was a reality in the end of the 1800’s
and is a reality today. This is particularly connected to the rural landscape.
But, what is old and what is new in a landscape?
Sweden is
a forest-county, but has not always been that during the history. Evidence of
ancient farming is to bee found in most forests in the south and middle Sweden.
Big parts of the country have also lost considerable areas of agriculture land
in the last 50 years. Most of this land has again been pine forests after an
agricultural period of many decades. Actually the image of Sweden as a
forestland is in parts of the country not much more than 150 years old.
A huge
preservation problem is all this historic landscape, including its buildings
and old structures. How much and particularly what must, and can, be preserved,
to keep the historic dimension in the landscape, for our children and for
following generations?
A third
and fundamental problem is the treatment of this. According to the European
habitat-directive “Natura 2000” Sweden have to protect old forests. But most of
these so-called old forests are, as we can see, not old in a historical point
of view. Some generations ago they were agriculture land.
After this
introduction, it may be interesting to look at how Swedish legislation has
handled problems concerning the protection of cultural heritage in the past.
TRADITIONAL
PROTECTION
Public
protection of historic remains has a long tradition in Sweden. The first
Cultural Heritage Act goes back to the proclamation of old monuments and
antiquities under royal prerogative from 1666. It is the oldest in the world.
Through
this proclamation remains were protected against influence of different kind,
damage and destruction. And such sites and objects as they were understood then
were seen as the physical reminders of the greatness of Sweden and its people
in earlier times, and included royal castles, prehistoric graves, runic stones
and ruined buildings among other things.
It is
interesting to note that the earliest legislation primarily dealt with the
contemporary Swedish great power and the monuments were used in arguments for
Sweden territorial claims in Europe during this time. This historic view was
also greatly supported by Swedish historians of the time.
I will
give you an example: Already in the second part of the 1500s the king John III
restored the ruined churches of the town Sigtuna, believing that these churches
was the oldest in Sweden. Houses in Dalecarlia, connected to the king Gustav
Vasa and the civil war around 1520, became one of the first projects for the
new Cultural Heritage Board in 1666. Some of them became National Historic
Landmarks or, let’s say, listed buildings, from 1668 and on. The Crown used
tax-brakes to promote the preservation of these buildings in future. One can
say that this shows two early examples of using public money to promote
preservation of historic buildings – a system that is still used today.
The
Cultural Heritage Act has always been good for protecting buildings but not for
the environment around the building. The problem with a historic building in a
historic environment is shown in next example:
The very
famous Swede, the botanist Carl Linnéaus was born in a small vicarage, called
Rĺshult, in the county of Smĺland in 1707.
The house that
he was actually born in does not exist today. It was lost in a fire a few years
after his birth and the red actual house was built 1731. But to this day, the
red country house at Rĺshult has been associated with Linnéaus and
represents a monument to him. It became a museum in 1935, and in 1977 it was
protected under the Cultural Heritage Act, as a listed building.
Protecting a house like this has been very
simple. Everybody - house owners, neighbours, historians, politicians etc. -
would agree that this house is of outstanding historical interest. However, this house is also situated in a
very charming historical landscape. Rĺshult is located in a forested area
without good prospects for profitable agriculture. A lot of the small fields,
meadows and grazing land have therefore been almost “left over” during the
1900s. For us today, Rĺshult is a good example of a traditional rural
landscape from the old days before the agrarian revolution.
Even if
Rĺshult, with its memories of Linnéaus – which could be viewed as of
international interest, the Cultural Heritage Act cannot be used to protect
this environment. The Act is focused on monuments and objects only. The Act
mentions nothing about historical landscapes. However, it has been
possible to protect landscapes like this in another way – by using the old
Nature Protection Act.
In Sweden
we have always divided the environment in two groups: cultural or natural
environments. This has in one way been a successful method for the protection
of landscapes, as long as both biologists and historians agree. But this method
can also lead to two sub-groups: a large team of biologists with plenty of
money, connected to international agreements, and a small team of historians
without money. This can lead to conflicts.
For
example, for pedagogical reasons historians want to show how the landscape in
Rĺshult was used, and looked like, when Linnéaus was born. They want to
restore the landscape. To do so one would have to dispose of most of the trees
in the graze land and in the old meadows, even though some trees are more than
100 years old, and open up parts of forest where there are remains of small
fields that have not been in use for a hundred years. In Rĺshult this
situations lead to conflicts with botanists and the old Nature Protection Act,
because of the threat to biodiversity.
FROM
POLITICAL AIMS TO OPERATIVE ACTION
How does
the legislation-system look like today?
First of
all I will say that safeguarding the cultural heritage has always been the
responsibility of the State, today the government and its agencies, but it is
also the responsibility of the local councils through the planning system.
The
National Heritage Board
The
National Heritage Board, were I have worked for, is the central preservation
authority on questions concerning the cultural heritage. It has a large
responsibility for transforming political aims to operative action.
Organizing
and channelling economic funding from the Parliament and the government
allotted for cultural heritage purposes is a big part of the work. The National
Heritage Board can also direct the use of this funding by pointing to specific
areas of activity.
County
Administrations
An
important part of this work, to get the political aims to operative action, is
undertaken together with the County Administrations.
There are
21 counties in Sweden and each of them has an Administration Board with a
cultural heritage department. The connections between The National Heritage
Board and these departments are strong.
Each
county has also its own museum, which work with different aspects of cultural
heritage questions, from giving advice and support to individuals and
authorities, about historically important buildings and ancient monuments, questions
on the documentation of traditional culture and spread of information about it.
County museums also receive economic means annually for this purpose.
The
statutory framework for the protection of heritage values consists of several
acts of Parliament, supplemented by government regulations.
The main
instrument for monuments, or say objects, are still the Cultural Heritage
Act, from 1988, which includes protection of archaeological monuments and
sites, listed historical buildings, churches and export and restitution
concerning objects of cultural importance.
The Environmental
Code, from 1999, proclaims protection and care of valuable environments as
one of its aims. And it also provides the possibility of creating cultural
reserves.
The Planning
and Building Act from 1987 provides the legal tools primarily for the 289
local councils in Sweden to look after cultural values.
This act
contains rules as to how the cultural heritage should be identified and
safeguarded in connection with planning procedures and in the screening of
planning applications.
Cultural
environments in the legislation system
In the
Environmental Code there are existing definitions for areas of cultural
heritage, pointed out by National Heritage Board, called “Environments of
national importance” or conservation areas.
The idea
is that there are landscape areas of a national importance, and that the
regional and local administrations are supposed to take care of these areas, by
planning according to the Planning and Building Act.
There are
many such landscapes, some are big and some are small, all with very different
sets of values, but all of them are particularly valuable. For these areas it
is necessary to explain the meaning of this national importance for cultural
heritage. But that is not always easy. The method used for many years was to
describe, lets say, the contents of the landscape. We stated the
content in terms of churches, runic stones, ancient graves, old houses etc. but
we sometime failed to state the motivation for this national importance clearly
enough.
I will
give you a example of the problem of an old description. It could bee like
this: ”In the area of national interest for cultural heritage there are: a
Viking runic stone, the well known church from the 13th century, the
vicarage with traditional red painted buildings from the 19th century, a parish
hall from 1790 and a poor house from 1800. Close to church, by the runic stone,
there is a stone bridge dating back to from around 1800.”
What
should a planner do when he, or she, reads this? Where is the national interest
and hove do you preserve it? The description did not give the motivation for
this. For example, did the bridge and the runic stone have anything to do with
what we were trying to explain? Not at all maybe.
We are
good in telling the content and what to be found, what to see in the areas but
we have problems to communicate with people, apart from ourselves. To explain
the system, the complex, why A leads to B and further into C is not easy. It is
the complex that should be preserved and it is therefore
necessary to give the motivation for the national importance. A new type of
description was necessary.
The new
one should be like this: “ The Reason for National importance: A
complete parish centre. The expression of the national importance: A
church, a vicarage, a parish hall and a poor house. Other valuable objects,
not connected to the National interest: A runic stone and a stone bridge.”
National
parks
The first
National Parks were founded in 1909, and were the first in Europe. Today there
are 30 and the biggest are Sarek and Padjelanta with an area of 200 000
hectares each.
Most of the
aims of the National parks give priority to nature values. The Environmental
Protection Agency decides and suggests new parks. The decision to found a park
is made by the Parliament. National parks are state-property.
Apart from
the national parks, Sweden has a great number of other protected areas, so
called nature reserves. A total of about 5 % of the country’s territory is
protected as reserves. There are many new reserves coming up and most of them
are for protecting forests and become state property.
Cultural
reserves
In
addition to the nature reserves, we now have, as I already mentioned, a new
tool; to establish cultural reserves. Money has been provided by the government
for the maintenance, the first years about 500 000 USD and today up to 2 mill.
USD. The money is given to the National Heritage Board who distributes it to
the county administrations.
Today
there are about 15 cultural reserves and in the future we will be able to find
about another ten new each year. All of the cultural reserves are private
property.
I will
soon return to the cultural reserves, but first I will give you a summery of
one of the most important, sort of new, preservation system; the Swedish way of
benefits in the common European agriculture policy. Because without farmers
there will be no agricultural landscapes to preserve, in the future.
Common
agricultural policy
In the
agricultural policy Sweden have had two supporting systems, one before and one
since we became member of the European community.
Before,
around 1990 we started a new agro-environmental program called Landscape
Preservation. First of all, we had to explain what we meant by historic
landscapes. We let the regional authorities make an inventory, or survey, for a
program that pointed out rural landscapes of great value, with both biological
and cultural values.
Farmers in
these areas were contacted and we made suggestions about landscape maintenance
and they were offered money as compensation for taking care of historic objects
of high value in a certain way. But when we became a member of the European
Union 1995, we were not allowed to do this. Now the rules must be the same for
all farmers, not only for them in the special areas.
Now, we
focused on common cultural values in fields, meadows and cattle grazing lands.
We are looking not only for rich biological values, but also for old structures
in form of elements like tree lines, wooden fences, stone walls, stone dumps,
ditches, old surplus hay barns etc.
Our idea
is that environments that contain a combination of high quantity and high
diversity of these elements are considered being valuable. We made a list of
about 50 landscape- elements. These are more common in some parts of the
country; so it is not a completely fair system in an economic benefit way, but
still quite good for maintenance the historical structures. The farmers are
encouraged to make agreements about landscape maintenance in accordance with
the EU agricultural policy guidelines (CAP).
There are
about 40 000 farmers in Sweden and today 12 000 of them have joined this
system. If we look at the future, we believe that about 20 000 farmers should
join the system. If that happens I think most of the money will be contributed
to the same areas as it used to do before 1995.
CULTURAL
RESERVES
Finally, I
will show you three examples of cultural reserves Lillhärjĺbygget,
Västeräng and Svaneholm.
The first
one is Lillhärjĺbygget. It is situated in the highlands of Härjedalen.
The climatic is fairly hard, with long winters with snow from October to May,
and short summers; the period of growth is only between midsummer and end of
august. The settlement is a result of the steep increases in the population
during the 1700s. To colonize this land was the alternative to emigration.
In the
picture you can see the huge swamps and the high mountains in the background
and the little settlement in the center. There are now road to
Lillhärjĺbygget. To get there you have to walk 12 km or skiing in the
winter. No electricity, no TV!
There have
been a lot of small agriculture settlements like this in Sweden but they are
all gone since the 1950s. The strange thing with Lillhärjĺbygget is that a
family still live as farmers here. Their income comes from traditional
cheese-production; timber and once a year sell one or two calves.
This
picture shows the summer farm, situated 3 km from the main farm. The family
moves to this place for 4-5 weeks every summer with the cattle.
An economy
like this, based on small domestic production, is not just rare in Sweden
today, it is absolutely unique. Lillhärjĺbygget became a culture reserve
this year. Public money will be used, for example, to pay for a helping hand.
The second
one is Västeräng. It is situated in Hälsingland and is a traditional
farm with extra ordinary historic buildings and a good example of traditional
rural landscape in the region.
Even if
the farmer and his family own the whole village of tree farms, it is not enough
at all on the modern common market. The fields are not bigger than about 50
hectares and the buildings are to old for modern stock racing or housebound and
the family economy cannot pay for new animal facilities.
Out in the
fields there are about 30 small barns for storing hay. Some of them are very
old. This one is from around 1550.
Also in
Västeräng the have a summer farm, situated about 10 km from the village. Even
the summer farm is a part of the culture-reserve, as well as the whole village
domain.
Without
extra ordinary help there would soon be an end of the traditional farming in
Västeräng. But Västeräng became a culture reserve this year, which will benefit
the farming in the future. As a starter, public money will be invested in a new
cow-house.
The third
one is Svaneholm in Skĺne and is a different example and has not yet
become a cultural reserve. This is in a highly productive region were the
nobility and the gentry owned most of the land in the 1700s.
The owner
of Svaneholm estate, baron Rutger Macklean, started in the 1790s a land reform
that became a pattern for whole agriculture landscape in Sweden in the 1800s.
Svaneholm became a totally planned landscape, very much America in one way.
Even if
this is a “modern” landscape, without natural values and used all the way into
the asphalt, it also contains among other things the original plan, easy to see
if you can read the grammar of the landscape. In a symbolic way Macklean
started the agricultural revolution in Sweden. In that context, I think there
could not be a better place to create a cultural reserve then in Svaneholm.
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