The geographic landscape as Cultural Heritage in the Post-Modern Age

The landscape represents the geographical-historical context where any objects acquire a historical but not universal meaning. The protection of a monumental or architectural asset does not automatically translate into protection of the landscape where it is contained. We should also be aware that the «reading» of the geographic landscape doesn’t map into research methodologies for cultural assets and, therefore, the geography cannot be credited as a privileged interlocutor in this field. No cultural asset has the same degree of complexity of the landscape; any cultural asset can be preserved, restored or reused without losing its meaning and its value. The landscape instead is a morphogenetic process in constant evolution and change that can be retained in its trans-formation but not preserved. The purpose of the following contribution is just to give the definition of geographic landscape as cultural heritage in the post-modern age.The landscape represents the geographical-historical context where any objects acquire a historical but not universal meaning. The protection of a monumental or architectural asset does not automatically translate into protection of the landscape where it is contained. We should also be aware that the «reading» of the geographic landscape doesn’t map into research methodologies for cultural assets and, therefore, the geography cannot be credited as a privileged interlocutor in this field. No cultural asset has the same degree of complexity of the landscape; any cultural asset can be preserved, restored or reused without losing its meaning and its value. The landscape instead is a morphogenetic process in constant evolution and change that can be retained in its trans-formation but not preserved. The purpose of the following contribution is just to give the definition of geographic landscape as cultural heritage in the post-modern age