CULTURALCULTURAL ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Cultural landscape is human-created landscape under the impact of biotic and abiotic factors that reflects the level of material development along with the social and cultural evolutionary changes.

The notion of cultural landscape is closely related to the notion of cultural environment. The “cultural environment” covers a wider meaning and includes phenomena of both material and non-material culture, focusing on their social aspects.

Artistic The concept of cultural environment environment comprises numerous aspects, including: Confessional environment

Ethical environment Country-side environment Urban Political environment environment Industrial environment 2 AESTHETIC VALUE OF ENVIRONMENT

Conceptual framework of cultural environment recognizes elements of landscape as the basis for the expression of material and non-material culture

A landscape with terrain and plant diversity will be much more valuable than a landscape without emotionally arousing components

Vilhelms Purv īts “Floodwaters in March ”, 1910. 3 COMPONENTS OF CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT AND THEIR INFLUENCE

Geological The important factors in the cultural environment Geographical landscape are its components: environment Flora Fauna

People appreciate a virgin landscape, typical of a certain region and evolving naturally, from the aesthetic perspective; it creatively affects an individual’s criteria of values and is mirrored in thinking and artistic reflection

Observation of a virgin environment or part of it through fine arts or music transforms it into an emotional and intellectual spiritual experience, motivating individual to regard nature with consideration and responsibility

4 SejaSeja ’’ss oakoak Second largest in Baltic's Perimeter: 9,1 m Height: 23,5 m Projection of crown: 250 m 2 Length of branches: up to 14,0 m Age: 450 years; planted possibly at 1567 LargestLargest treestrees inin LatviaLatvia StandardStandard forfor largestlargest treestrees inin LatviaLatvia

Latvian/English Latin Perimeter, m Height, m Apse/aspen tree Populus tremula L. 3,5 35 Baltalksnis/white alder Alnus incana (L.) Moench 1,6 25 Bērzs/birch tree Betula pendula 3,0 33 Egle/spruce Picea abies (L.) Karst. 3,0 37 Parast ā goba/elm Ulmus glabra Huds. 4,0 28 Parast ā ieva/bird cherry tree Padus avium Mill. 1,7 22 Parast ā kļava/maple Acer platanoides L. 3,5 27 Parast ā liepa/lime tree Tilia cordata Mill. 4,0 33 Parast ā vīksna/flattering elm Ulmus laevis Pall. 4,0 30 Melnalksnis/black alder Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn. 3,0 30 Parastais osis/ash-tree Fraxinus excelsior L. 4,0 34 Parastais ozols/oak Quercus robur L. 5,0 32 Parastais sk ābardis/hornbeam Carpinus betulus L. 1,9 20 Parastais p īlādzis/rowan-tree Sorbus aucuparia L. 1,7 21 Parast ā priede/pine-tree Pinus sylvestris L. 3,0 38 LargestLargest treestrees inin LatviaLatvia

Aizputes dižsk ābardis Sasmakas Elku liepa Hornbeam 4,72 m Lime-tree 8,05 m MostMost prominentprominent culturalcultural --historicalhistorical stonesstones inin LatviaLatvia Most prominent cultural-historical stones in Latvia

”Īvānu” Devil stone

“Bestes” miles stone

“Abavmuižas” cross stone ESTIMATION OF THE AESTHETIC QUALITIES

The estimation of the aesthetic qualities of a landscape in material terms can be illustrated by the taxation of real estate, when the price of land is converted into a monetary equivalent according to a scale of certain criteria.

Landscape whose monotony is interrupted by at least a single natural element – a stone, a tree, a hill or a lake – will be awarded a higher taxation value.

a wild plain A monotonous landscape devoid of artistic or aesthetic natural Elements will be awarded the smallest endless grassy open number of points as: space

forest or a similar homogeneous biotope 11 DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Until the 21 st century, Central European cultural environment developed under the influence of agrarian and industrial economy.

Only the territories of marshlands and wetlands, unsuitable for farming, were devoid of economic activities. These territories have now rapidly decreased or even disappeared due to intensive industrialisation, road building and urbanisation.

The notion of “cultural landscape” denotes a human-transformed natural environment which includes diverse footprints of human activity.

12 INTERACTION BETWEEN URBAN AND RURAL CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

On the threshold of the second millennium anno Domini, European economy had created preconditions for decoupling crafts from agriculture.

Urban lifestyle : Merchants : - formation of complex, socially - link between the countryside and the stratified administrative, religious and towns by buying agricultural products, craft structures; shipping them to towns and ports; - social roles of the stratified society - exchange of goods and expansion of reflected in construction, fashion, trade; behaviour and the culture of human - faster turnover of cultural interaction. achievements both in towns and rural areas.

Rural lifestyle: - individual farmsteads or poorly developed rural community centres; - patriarchal economy; - archaic traditions of domestic life. 13 CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT IN LATVIA

An essential quality of the rural environment is the aesthetically attractive placement of dispersed farmsteads in the landscape - at a river or a lake, on an elevation, nested at a forest, surrounded by fields and meadows.

The rural environment is characterised by such elements: roads farmsteads hill forts churches manor houses cemeteries schools

bridges mills ancient inns Characteristic Latvian rural landscape 14 CASTLE MOUNDS

The surviving witnesses of the heathen period in the Baltic cultural landscape are the of the ancient tribes of the Balts. The mounds give evidence of the transformed terrain, the banked or levelled-o. terraces, the steep slopes, water barriers adjusted for defence purposes.

Tervete castle mound The more Mezotne castle mound significant castle Buse castle mound mounds in Latvia: Talsu castle mound

From the 11 th to 12 th century onwards, the cultural environment of the patriarchal tribes of the Baltic area, their economic and spiritual life as well as the landscape fell under the influence of the economic, religious and administrative Mound Tanisa at Rauna culture of German missionaries. 15 Castle ruins of the Rezekne fogt (ruler of the territory)

Kandava castle mound

Daugmale castle mound INDIVIDUAL FARMSTEAD

The individual farmstead, having broken away from the tribal community, turned into the living space for the household and the family amidst a landscape that was adapted for tilling and ca le-breeding and capable of providing for the material and spiritual needs of all the individuals who lived in the farmstead.

Farmstead in Vidzeme 17 RURAL LANDSCAPE

The rural folk’s excellent sense of nature and the environment when organizing their living space goes hand in hand with a responsible attitude towards the economically available territory and the immediate areas, very carefully selecting the place for residential and ancillary buildings. Trees and alleys have been planted thinking of a harmonious environment; individual landscape elements have been adjusted: bushes have been cut, springs and huge boulders have been cleared, free space given to peculiar trees and attractive panoramic views.

18 RURALRURAL ENVIRONMENTENVIRONMENT

The rural environment, in contrast to the urban environment, is characterised by elements of high cultural, historical, architectonic and landscape potential. Important components are big complexes, for example, manors and their parks, public institutions: churches and churchyards, parsonages, schools, shops, pharmacies, municipality buildings, wind- and water-mills, factories and plants, ancient inns and post offices, bridges, roads, railways and railway stations. BIRIBIRI ŅŅII MANORMANOR CASTLESCASTLES ANDAND PALACESPALACES

Today historically significant and valuable elements of human-created environment are awarded the status of cultural monuments. Manors, parks, churches, medieval castles and their ruins have a high cultural, historical, artistic and emotional potential as well as a considerable impact on the surrounding environment since all of them are, for military, logistical or even symbolic reasons, masterfully located in the landscape. Feudal lords, bishops and their vassals built their castles on hills or steep banks of rivers or lakes to serve as military support bases, to protect their property and territory and to maintain control over the local population. FEUDAL CASTLES AS BEGINNING OF TOWNS

The settlements in the vicinity of the medieval feudal castles developed into villages and towns whose residents could engage in crafts and trade, thus becoming mediators between the country folk and the buyers of their production.

The most impressive fortresses of Latvia are in :

Riga Sigulda Cesis Ludza Dobele Bauska Ventspils Aizpute

Krustpils Turaida castle at river Gauja 22 Bauska castle Daugavpils castle – unique cultural and historical monument Stameriena palace

Diklu palace Edole castle at sixties of the 19 th century and nowadays

26 MANORMANOR HOUSESHOUSES ANDAND PALACESPALACES

The architecture of the 17–19 th century manor houses and their ensembles is the treasure of the cultural heritage of Scandinavian and eastern European countries, including the Baltic states, and has a large potential for the development of tourism. The palaces built by Dukes of Courland in Rundale and Jelgava and several tens of former medieval fortresses in Latvia have been recognized as valuable cultural monuments and taken under the protection of the Latvian state, along with Renaissance, Baroque and Classicism palace ensembles in Mezotne, Kazdanga, Durbe, Stukmani, Varaklani, Preili, Kraslava, Cesvaine, Birini, Dikli, Ungurmuiza. VILLAGES AND TOWNS

Villages and small towns have several features of the urban environment, while still retaining the link with the virgin nature, cultivated land, gardens, fields, forests, waters, all of which was in the rural community’s collective use.

Single-family houses became a characteristic element of the cultural environment in villages; adapted for residence, production or public functions and adjoined by a small territory for recreation. The economic activities are not based on agricultural production as the only means for sustenance - small-scale manufacturing, crafts, trading and sole proprietorship.

Saldus 28 CULTURAL LANDSCAPE FROM WILD NATURE

By improving the virgin geo-botanical environment, humans gradually developed special territories separated from the surrounding landscape – gardens, decorative green areas and parks. In each climate and geographic zone they reflect the concepts of beauty and value of nature of a particular nation.

The landscape cultivated according to definite aesthetic and landscaping principles is the cultural environment in the true sense of the word.

Ancient records, literature, artworks and surviving cultural landscape artefacts bear testimony to the multitude of variations of the cultural environment. The Old Testament depicts paradise or the Garden of Eden where flora and fauna created by God’s wisdom existed in ideal harmony.

29 RUNDALE PALACE

During the Baroque and Classicism period, the culture of the nobility pursued the creation of impressive architectonic and landscape ensembles where a prominent place was allowed to French style regular gardens and tree plantations. In the second half of the 18th century, they were transformed into romantic parks with an irregular network of paths and plantings of trees that reminded of a natural landscape.

The Rundale Palace park was reconstructed in 1980–2007 in Baroque traditions, and the landscape diversity of the territory was achieved by alternating regular paths, ponds and plantations, trimmed hedges and alleys, seasonal plants, as well as the architecture of small forms: arbours, pergolas and pavilions.

Baroque palace in Rundale 30 Churches in cultural environment

To eradicate the heathen traditions of the Baltic tribes and make use of the habits of the locals to worship at ancient sacred sites, Christian missionaries used to build churches close by springs, boulders and ancient trees, thus replacing the ancient sacred site with a Christian site.

At the churches, they erected belfries and established churchyards for Christian parishioners. Marking o. the church and churchyard territory, layered stone walls were built to surround chapels, crosses of ancient burials, monuments and plantations of trees.

The location of churches in rural areas was chosen to make the church visible from afar – in this way sacred architecture attracted flows of people.

Church in rural area 31 CEMETERIES – OLD AND NEW

Catholic missionaries a empted to adapt heathen burial sites to Christian traditions by erecting crucifixes and introducing Christian burial rituals. To confine the spread of epidemics and follow the European examples of sanitation norms, on 1 May 1773, the Russian empress Catherine II issued a decree that prohibited burials under church floors and in medieval churchyards at town churches.

Steps taken to implement the decree included establishing new cemeteries, which in the Baltic Region promoted the formation of a burial culture that corresponded to the rational spirit of the Enlightenment.

The majority of rural cemeteries in Baltic Countries, now turned into shady parks, had a rectangular plan in the late 18th and early 19th century. Cemetery in Turlava rural district 32 URBAN ENVIRONMENT

A city is a highly developed form of a human settlement where the individual and social needs are met in the most rational way. The people who settle for city life create a system of collective behavioural norms to ensure their social needs. Geographically, a city can be defined as a living space that is densely populated by a relatively closed community of a vital economic importance to the surrounding territory.

Geographically, a city can be defined as a living space that is densely populated by a relatively closed community of a vital economic importance to the surrounding territory.

Skyline of Riga: a feature of the urban landscape highly appreciated by UNESCO experts 33 URBAN ENVIRONMENT

All cities have certain common features: a concentrated multi-storey development, a branched structure of streets and roads, developed traffic and other systems of communication, a complicated administrative mechanism with numerous institutions that regulate the individual’s actions and life.

Not every city plan has a central composition and a radial street network, but every city has its symbolic centre, with the main streets converging at it.

As a rule, it is the centre of the administrative power – the castle of the feudal lord or the bishop, the Town Hall or, in modern times, the municipality building. A spatial satellite of these symbols of power and architectonically expressive buildings is an ample presentational space – a central square or a market place, a garden and a park, fountains adorned with sculptures and ponds as a venue for festivities, parades and ceremonies.

Centre of Riga city. 34 URBAN ENVIRONMENT OF RIGA CITY

A typical feature of Riga’s urban environment is its park belt – a chain of parks created in the second half of the 19th century to skirt the historical part, and the Canal Gardens with an interesting man-made relief and a diverse dendrological and botanical composition, a complex network of paths and many objects of decorative sculptures and monuments. The dismantling of the city’s defence bastions and ramparts took place in Vienna and Riga around the same time – in the mid-19th century; therefore, both cities have many common features.

Beyond this park belt, there was the new part of the city with the main streets, boulevards and side-streets. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the regular and irregular rectangular street blocks were lined with apartment buildings, buildings of educational and administrative institutions and public buildings among which churches of various denominations stand out. Riga’s dense development borders with the Daugava River and the green zone. 35 INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT

Just like the circular waves caused by a stone dropped into water travel towards the outside, so does the functional zoning change towards the periphery in cities, and beyond the impressive blocks of administrative and apartment buildings begins a belt of industrial architecture that embraces the centre.

In the suburban area of Riga, surrounded by convenient access roads and warehouses, yellow brick blocks of 19th century factory buildings rise. The development of the port, domestic and foreign trade, banking business, growth of industrial production contributed to an economic boom in Riga in the late 19th and early 20th century. Breweries and metal foundries, shipyards and engineering plants, textile factories and bicycle plants, water supply stations, railway stations, paper mills, cement plants, glassworks, wood-working factories, soapworks and ceramics factories make up a small part of the multitude of Riga’s enterprises.

In the modern world, industrial architecture is regarded as an important part of historical heritage and a unique component of the cultural environment, and the buildings that had once been built for industrial or other technical aims are creatively adapted to new functions. 36 PRESERVATION OF HISTORICAL INDUSTRIAL ENVIRONMENT

In previous industrial premises of gypsum factory in Riga now are put on a shape new modern apartments

Araisi windmill – an example of industrial architecture in the rural cultural environment 37 WOODEN ARCHITECTURE OF RIGA CITY

Considerately restored wooden houses can provide modern living conditions. Kalnciema and Murnieku Streets, whole blocks of houses in the Latgale suburb and private housing areas in the suburbs testify to the popularity of the so-called ‘wooden Riga’ and outline a perspective of the preservation of an authentic cultural environment. 38 UNIQUE OBJECTS OF URBAN ENVIRONMENT

Naval port in Liepaja

Medieval castle in Cesis

39 SMALL PORT TOWNS

The urban environment of Latvia’s small port towns with the features of industrial culture – wharfs and fish processing enterprises – is inseparable from the attractive small town environment with private houses and gardens.

As small fishermen agglomerations, Pavilosta, Mersrags, Roja, Salacgriva combine the components of both urban and rural environments in their landscapes.

Fishermen town Pavilosta 40 RESORT TOWNS

Latvia’s urban environment is diversified by resort towns as Sigulda, Ogre, Baldone, Saulkrasti, Liepaja and Jurmala with their peculiar cottage architecture, the exterior design for recreation purposes, also the curative resources for the benefit of seasonal guests.

Jurmala Saulkrasti Sigulda Ogre Liepaja Baldone

The history of Baldone and Kemeri as resorts is related to the development of balneology (use of medicinal mud) and climatotherapy. Their scientific research dates back to the late 18th century when court physicians of the Russian Empress Catherine II visited these places.

The creative atmosphere of resort towns has facilitated the creation of many works of art, literature and music, and each resort town has its individual historical memory of prominent guests of the resort, writers, artists and musicians.

41 RESORT TOWN’S CULTURAL OBJECTS

On the scale of the European culture, Latvia’s spa environment is particularly attractive because of the rich variety of forms and styles of its wooden architecture. The facades of hotels, health institutions, restaurants and concert halls with their light decorations, balconies, terraces, turrets and verandas are a significant factor contributing to the charm of resort towns.

Sulphur spring in Kemeri

Jurmala. A wooden Orthodox church integrated in the complex of the Kemeri sanatorium. 42 QUALITY OF CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Citizens of Latvia deeply love their native lands; therefore, they feel highly responsible for their cultural environment. A proof of this is careful tending of individual farmsteads, private houses, restored manors, their territories and gardens, decorating them with original design objects.

The public acknowledgement of the most beautiful farmsteads and words of praise for their owners strengthen the citizens’ commitment to their land and motivate them to follow the example.

Town hall in Ventspils

43 CHANGES IN CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

A different has been constructed in Riga’s urban space to create the image of the catering and entertainment complex ‘Lido’, heavily using clichés of ethnographic architecture and national culture.

Using traditional techniques of peasant wooden architecture, several large-size buildings of horizontal logs have been built to accommodate restaurants that cater for several hundred customers.

The designers constantly strive to re-decorate the attractive environment, replete with kitschy elements, according to Latvian national seasonal festivities, introducing new elements of commercial culture: Christmas trees, moving dolls and Santa Claus symbols. Entertainment complex “Lido”. 44 Open -air Art Museums

The Pedvale Open-air Art Museum, established in 1991 by the sculptor Ojars Feldbergs in an area of 100 hectares near Sabile, has now been recognised as an item of cultural environment in art books. The permanent collection of the museum numbers nearly 150 sculptures and environmental installations created during annual symposiums by both Latvian and foreign artists.

The museum concept stipulates a synthesis of the natural landscape, agricultural land, cultural heritage and works of art in a united space of the cultural environment to integrate the new artworks as harmonious components.

Pedvale Open-air Art Museum

45 INTERACTIVE RECREATION

Interactive recreation in the cultural environment of Latvia is the territory of the ‘Laumas’ farmstead in the rural district of Ive, near Talsi. Wide areas of fields and forests have been adapted for sport and tourism. The nature park is especially popular with tourist families. It offers informational trails of Bees, Birds, Plants and Forest.

Interactive recreation parks popularises organised cultural environment and makes people become more considerate of nature.

Nature trail at Munchausen’s museum

46 Turaida Museum Reserve and Folk Song Park-Dainu Hill

Nature trail in Slitere 47 DEGRADATION OR IMPROVEMENT OF THE CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Global processes testify to an irreversible depletion of the Earth’s resources and degradation of the natural environment. These regularities refer to the cultural environment, too.

Desolate farmstead in Vidzeme – degraded cultural landscape caused by discontinued agricultural activity and changes in population density.

48 RENOVATED AND RETURNED TO THE SOCIETY CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Castle of Kurland duke’s von Ketler in Bauska

House of the Blackhead in Riga

49 THANK YOU FOR ATTENTION !