O Lugar e o Significado Os Jardins dos Vice-Reis

This work starts with the hypothesis that gardens are art objects, built with the components of place, and embodying meaning. As an ecosystem, and a work of art, the garden was approached respectively through geographic and art historical methods. Phenomenological principles which had previously been used by C. Norberg-Schultz to study architecture, were also applied to the garden, enhancing it as a living phenomenon with meaning. The study recognizes that M. Heidegger's fourfold is well adjusted to the idea of a garden: in the act of building, man gathers the earth, the sky, the mortals and the divinities. Through history, gardens have been a microcosms, emboding man's understanding of the universe and of himself, and over this first level of meaning, other specific intentions were added: the creation of an earthly paradise, the celebration of man, and the celebration of Nature. The thesis is applied to four gardens identified by a common meaning: the renaissance idea experienced along with the meeting of Eastern and Western cultures, lived by the portuguese vice-roys in India. The importance of place and meaning is emphasized in the chosen examples belonging to: Vasco da Gama, Afonso de Albuquerque; D. Joao de Castro, e Marqueses de FronteiraAvailable from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, Servico de Informacao e Documentacao, Av. D. Carlos I, 126, 1200 Lisboa / FCT - Fundação para o Ciência e a TecnologiaSIGLEPTPortuga