Revitalising the Historical Landscape: The Grange in Southern Europe

Abstract

Landscape can be seen as a layering of different historical traces; this coexistence of several witnesses implies the possibility of several ways in which landscape policies can be oriented. This contribution aims to explore and analyze the relationship between the presence of historical sediments (namely, the system of monastic grange) and landscape policies.Granges are particularly interesting as they represent a medieval strategy for territorial control and economic resource exploitation. Through a systematic territorial design, grange became satellites of network hierarchical organization, modifying the existent territorial structure and generating new territorial systems. This contribution, treating grange as a paradigm, is articulated into two sections. The first part aims to propose an exam of European experiences, providing a synthetic census of contemporary strategic attitude and ideas for valorization towards grange, within legislative systems. The second section regards an overview on the effectiveness of contemporary strategies. Through this approach, we would like to provide a comparative view on different local approaches towards a transnational territorial phenomenon.