REGIONAL LANDSCAPE IDENTITY IN BULGARIA Open Spaces around Veliko Turnovo Project Partners Municipality of Avrig, Romania Responsible for the content of the brochure: Astra National Museum Complex, Romania University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Institute of Landscape Architecture Foundation Samuel von Brukenthal, Romania DI Pixie Jacobs IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems, Austria DDI Anja Seliger DI Jürgen Furchtlehner University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, Austria Vienna, 2014 Municipality of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria Municipality of Alexandroupolis, Greece Regional Department for Cultural Heritage Apulia, Italy Berlin University of Technology, Germany Further information: www.culttour.eu 2 Content 5 How to use this brochure 7 Introduction 13 Open spaces around Veliko Turnovo 62 List of open spaces 64 Sources Project Partner-City Sofia Veliko Turnovo BULGARIA 3 4 How to use this brochure How can a region identify itself through its landscape, longer descriptions - these are more prominent and unique sites especially through its open spaces? What kind of open spaces - and there are open spaces with reduced description, which are are there and why are they special for the region? also worth a visit, especially if they are „on the way“. These questions and more will be discussed in this brochure. All sites can be formed to a route, which can be composed First, an overview about the meaning of open spaces and individually. The sites are reachable either by car, bus or train. landscape characteristics in a region is given. Thereby, the A few sites can only be reached by foot, even though there are importance and the value of the landscape and espacially the parking facilities or a train station close by. value of open spaces is discussed. Taking Veliko Turnovo as a starting point, all sites are within a After an introducing statement on landscape characteristics distance of 100 kilometers. and open spaces in general, a compilation of noteworthy open spaces around Veliko Turnovo is presented. All of the A summerizing list of the presented open spaces showing their presented sites are of local distinctiveness and can be seen as specific landscape characteristical aspect(s) can be found at the potential for strengthening and developing a region and their end of the folder. identity. Background information to the sites is given, including hints about the speciality of each open space. There are sites with 5 6 Introduction The brochure „Regional Landscape Identity in Bulgaria - Open visible, an area can be experienced in an innovative way. Spaces around Veliko Turnovo“ presents open spaces in the region around Veliko Turnovo and shows typical landscape The brochure can be seen as a tool for people to get aware of characteristics. The folder aims to highlight the specific the significance of open spaces and of their presence in the character of the area, exemplified through its open space region. Furthermore, open spaces as indicators of the overall heritage sites. quality of a city or of a whole region is a fact which is not The folder is presenting the singularity of the human built always apparent on the first sight, but which is evident for the landscape in the area and discusses what local characteristics development of a city or a whole region. This potential as an can be. In this sense it is necessary to understand that open attractor and value (e.g. in fields of life quality, recreation, spaces are much more than gardens or parks. But what is an biodiversity, micro-climate, education, social interaction, open space and why is it worth to deal with them? economy, tourism) needs to be realized. What is an open space? The folder is also meant to help, strenghthen and develop regional identity. Open spaces, literally formed by people Open spaces are human interventions in the cultural landscape for people, are giving identity to a village, to a city or to a and can be of various types: all kind of parks and gardens, whole region. People are using them for recreation purposes, other public sites like squares, promenades or boulevards, for meeting other people, for trading or just for passing. memorials, exhibition sites or spiritual sites like churchyard Everybody is using open spaces in everyday life, consciously gardens or cemeteries, just to name some. or subconsciously. Thus, open spaces shape people and vice Open spaces are the backbone of each village, of each city. versa. Open spaces reflect society. „The physical environment Within open spaces, regional characteristics are present in the is being shaped by culture, however culture is also the result landscape all around us all the time. of the existential expression of a society being shaped by the Through making them accessible and through making them environment“ (Pellitero, 2011, 59). 7 Each period of time brings out specifically formed open The presented sites have to be seen as an open list. There is no spaces, as a result of social, political or economic reasons. ranking. The open spaces shown in the folder are noteworthy Sometimes they have been transformed over the years. Some examples (from a landscape architectural observation), but others have kept the original state. Both, transformed sites, there will be more to be discovered in the region. historic sites or even completely new open spaces have impact on the life of people. What is Landscape Architecture? The presented open spaces are the result of an intensive Like architecture is primarily dealing with buildings, landscape research work in the area within Project CultTour. The city architecture is a field dedicated to the designed landscape. of Veliko Turnovo as project partner of Project CultTour was Designed landscape includes so-called open spaces inside and therefore chosen to be the starting point for investigating the outside of settlement areas. The genesis and the manifestations regions characteristics in the human shaped landscape and in of open spaces are topics of landscape architecture, which open spaces. Visiting the region, investigating and analysing make spatial, natural, cultural and social contexts to a matter sites, searching for regional characteristics, talking to regional and task of landscape architects. experts, inhabitants or professionals from municipalities was Traces of human intervention are present in each open space. part of the elaboration process. These human interventions and their temporal origins and phases characterize and zone the space. The traces left behind All information gathered is broken to an understandable and are complex and rich in associations. Open spaces with their easy readable form, not only useable for professionals, but also design, use, or facilities reflect the respective society and for other interested people. The brochure provides background culture of an area or region. Open spaces reflect the local information to the sites as well as photographs to get a good distinctiveness and the overall quality of a whole region. Since picture on the manifold types of open spaces found in the this fact, landscape architecture can strengthen the regional region. identity and the regional development. 8 The benefits of a regional open space route What is a region? Taking the presented open spaces and forming them to “Compared with the individually experienced and produced an individual regional route offers a new approach when 'place', the 'region' has an explicit institutionalised and discovering and dealing with a region. Each region, each city thus collective nature. Place refers to the process by which is consisting of various open space sites. The compilation of everyday practices of individuals relate to the structures of the sites aims to point out exemplarily the regional character. institutional power, whereas region is a symbolic entity beyond The sites are chosen in order to point out the regional direct experience produced by individuals only by collective characteristics in open space exemplarily and to make them means” (Paasi, 1991, 11). visible. Each of the sites is chosen according to one or more specific regional characteristics and their manifestation at the A region is characterized by various features, most of which site. This can be for example materials, plantings, ornaments, have impact on the landscape and on open spaces. But first of memorials or statues, a specific historical and/or social context, all, what defines a region? a specific design or colour, a typical pattern of urban planning A region is kind of a coherent area. This coherent area consists with impact on the site and many more (see also list of open of a certain similarity and the similarity is defined through spaces and their characteristics on p. 62). certain features. One similarity feature can be for example Open spaces are always embedded into urban or regional a dialect, a folk culture of a region (cf. Schindegger, 1999, landscapes and context. In this sense, each open space shows 38). These features are so-called tangible features and they specific regional characteristic and its manifestation. can be depicted inter alia as language, religion, historical processes, economy, trades and industries, regional products, infrastructure, or ethnicity. Next to tangible features exist intangible features. They define a regional space through a 9 daily life experience, intensive social interaction or networks. aggregate out of multifactorial elements. The intangible features are leading to the precious feeling of belonging (cf. Roth et al., 2009, 22). The continuation of this thoughts leads to the the meaning of spatial or regional identity. Speaking of the identity of a place, Besides all the above mentioned characteristics, a region a village, or a region, identity must be somehow connected to is often defined by natural basics. Morphology shapes the one´s personal identity. landscape through its mountains, seas or rivers. This causes People do relate themselves with a place of origin or a place natural boundaries like they are very visible for example of special personnel context.