Panel 7 The role of Religious Sites and Structures in Rural Landscapes and Communities

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/j9s7-2b35

Organizer/Presenter/author Information // Informations sur l'organisateur / le présentateur / auteurs

Elizabeth Brabec, University of Massachusetts - AmherstFollow

Biographical Information // Informations biographiques

Elizabeth Brabec is a Professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is also Director of the research center, the Center for Heritage and Society. She works in cultural landscapes issues and is a member of the ISCCL.

Keywords

sacred sites; sacred heritage; rural sacred sites; rural sacred landscapes

Abstract // Résumé

This panel explores the heritage of religious sites in rural landscapes and communities of central and eastern Europe, and Morocco. Religious sites and their community networks within the rural landscape are often overlooked as a collective resource. However, they provide overlapping levels of order in the landscape that derive from various social classes and religious traditions. Often these layers of class and spiritual tradition are invisible to those outside of the class/social/cultural group that created it and appear only as isolated remnant icons unrelated to their communities or landscape complexes.

However, closer reading of the monuments, sites and landscapes of these areas reveal connected networks of places and routes that define a cultural and nuanced reading of both society and the natural landscape. They are also an important resource, that if interpreted, can be a driver for tourism and economic development.

This panel will present experiences from three different regions: Musteata on the fortified churches of Transylvania, Romania; Ziss and Smolik on the place of Jewish sites in the Saharan region of southern Morocco; and Brabec on the sites and sacral architecture of the rural landscape of western Bohemia, Czechia.

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Panel 7 The role of Religious Sites and Structures in Rural Landscapes and Communities

This panel explores the heritage of religious sites in rural landscapes and communities of central and eastern Europe, and Morocco. Religious sites and their community networks within the rural landscape are often overlooked as a collective resource. However, they provide overlapping levels of order in the landscape that derive from various social classes and religious traditions. Often these layers of class and spiritual tradition are invisible to those outside of the class/social/cultural group that created it and appear only as isolated remnant icons unrelated to their communities or landscape complexes.

However, closer reading of the monuments, sites and landscapes of these areas reveal connected networks of places and routes that define a cultural and nuanced reading of both society and the natural landscape. They are also an important resource, that if interpreted, can be a driver for tourism and economic development.

This panel will present experiences from three different regions: Musteata on the fortified churches of Transylvania, Romania; Ziss and Smolik on the place of Jewish sites in the Saharan region of southern Morocco; and Brabec on the sites and sacral architecture of the rural landscape of western Bohemia, Czechia.