No abstract

The implementation of the European Landscape Convention in Poland requires the identification and landscape assessment in the form of a landscape audit made for each region (voivodeship), as enshrined in the Act on Spatial Planning and Land Development. The Act assumes that as part of landscape audit within regional parks priority landscapes as well as zones of landscape protection will be indicated. There are methodical tools prepared by the Ministry of the Environment to realize both main landscape audit elements – the instruction and the recommendations. Currently (at the end of 2018) no region of the audit is yet to be found, and the newly adopted conservation plans for regional parks enforce, in accordance with the Nature Conservation Act reference to both priority landscapes and zones. This article presents testing of the methodology proposed by the Ministry of the Environment for determining priority landscapes (the instruction) and landscape protection zones (the recommendations). The reference field was the conservation plan for Brudzeń Landscape Park (BLP) located in the Masovian Voivodeship. An attempt to implement particularly the Instructions and identify priority landscapes in the BLP conservation plan proved to be not fully possible. The analyzes carried out in the BLP call for the opinion that apart from the current landscape, it is necessary to take into account other than land use features of the environment that determine the specificity of the landscape – mainly terrain, additionally the catalog of current types of landscapes should be open. Tools prepared by the Ministry of the Environment – still need to be refined.

Though often overlooked due to its scale, small sacral Christian architecture has a significant importance in cultural landscapes in Europe and beyond. It represents a shared international cultural heritage and is significant in its diversity, distribution and abundance across cultural landscapes. The tradition of the artistic depiction of the cross in Christianity dates back to the 4th century AD. The first monuments in the form of crosses were placed in open landscapes in Scotland in the 7th century. The most important period for the spread of small sacral architecture of Catholic origin in eastern Europe was during the Baroque, thus most of the preserved small sacral monuments date back to the late 17th,18th and 19th centuries. They are often accompanied by monumental single trees or a compositionally organised group of trees and create a sacred composition of nature and culture. They have become important landmarks, indicators of place and landscape features of spatial organization, representing a significant historical legacy and cultural heritage for future generations. This article elaborates on the origin, historical development and landscape values of small sacral Christian architecture, as well as their relation to separate natural monuments or natural features that create part of the sacral composition, such as memorial trees growing around them. This article introduces the topic of sacral architecture and its contribution to the character and identity of European cultural landscapes.

No abstract

No abstract