Spatial identity of Latvian cultural landscape within regional context

Abstract

The value of the cultural landscape heritage, its accessibility, preservation, landscape protection zone rating, avoidance of blocking or releasing viewlines (silhouettes, panoramas) etc. – these are the issues which are very little reflected in municipal documents. The documents mainly consist of decisions and support to meet practical or business-friendly needs. Along with the increased attraction of EU investment in agriculture, the mentioned issues become even more aggravated – at which expense the areas and the respective payments are increasing? The answer is one – at the expense of the landscape. In each of Latvian counties, there are territories that cannot lose historical value and we must search for a mutually beneficial algorithm. EU funding projects must contribute to the preservation of the cultural landscape heritage, i.e. to the introduction of Europe's best philosophy and practices. The recovery of the cultural landscape, including maintenance works and its progress in postsocialist areas, is not an easy task, knowing the existing ownership and the economic situation in the country. Will we really get a greater contribution to the state economy from the amount of threshed centners than from the preservation of landscape values in the long term? A task of crucial importance is the research of each region's landscape space, the development of a concept and elaboration of project documentation. As the study shows, Latvian greenfields and cultural heritage calls for the actions to form several areas of the museum reserve.