The cultural landscape of the Jelenia Góra basin

Landscape is a concept of many meanings. It is treated and defined differently by geographers and naturalists, landscape architects and urbanists, and differently still by artists and travellers. Most typically, we associate landscape with naturę and an original natural condition. But wherever humans have dwelled, the original natural condition has been changed. Humans are constantly intervening in naturę, transformmg naturę, and seeking to tamę naturę to suit their needs. This has been the casefor thousands of years. How should we treat a natural landscape, which has so frequently been transformed by human action? In his poem on naturę, Johann Wolfgang Goethe wrote: "...we dwell in her, but we are foreign to her...". Does human action always destroy and degrade landscape in a rivalry that does not recognise the value of naturę? Does human action not create new value through places, vistas and views? Over the course of history, landscapes and spaces have been created, which have gained widespread appreciation. Today, we refer to spaces transformed by human action, in which we discover additional value, as cultural landscapes. There are dozens of definitions of cultural landscape and its variations in the gdographical, architectural and urbanist literature. The role and influence of human action on nature is treated in different ways. The most important thing is that in recent years, there has been growing interest in landscape conservation and that cultural landscapes have become synonymous with values of significance to humankind. Landscape has also been recognised as contributing an important value to be protected in contemporary European policy.