Making our rural landscape visible. A way to defend anonymous cultural heritage

Abstract

4s a result of the energy transition, traditional rural landscapes are being threatened by renewable energy macro-projects, often promoted by foreign companies. In response to this threat, our project aims to bring to light the cultural heritage concealed in these landscapes, built over centuries by wise hands and minds, using the natural resources available at the time, in order to highlight their value and later defend them from this threat. The specific case under analysis are the surroundings of El Perelló and L’Ametlla de Mar, in Baix Ebre (Tarragona, Spain), a site with Neolithic, Iberian and Roman settlements, in a calcareous geography, situated between the mountains and the Mediterranean Sea. This is a rural landscape, built on a human and family scale, protected by the mountain of Tossal de Montagut, its agrarian mosaic drawn by winding paths and dry-stone walls, with beautiful geometric outlines. A series of domestic elements (houses, wells, hunting shelters and farmyards) represents an organic complex and defines a settlement in balance with nature. It is a place that, if we give in to the threat of these projects, will become an industrial estate, destroying its cultural heritage. We propose reflection on the identity and fragility of these anonymous places, the need to keep alive their memory and their cultural heritage, both natural and built. From the viewpoint of their architecture, we aim to contribute to the debate on the current conflicts between rural landscapes and renewable energies. Our project aims to analyse, record, catalogue, redraw, etc. the architectural elements in the affected landscape (approx. 800 Ha), highlighting the historical value of the place by means of historic archival work and recording the tradition and daily life of local people.