2010
Nr 2(28)
The Polish social and economic reality, quick struc-
tural changes and intensied urban development pose a
signicant threat for preservation and protection of land-
scape. The European Landscape Convention [14] ratied
by Poland in 2004 specied a denition of landscape, un-
derstood as an area integrating natural and cultural compo-
nents. Polish legislation draws a thick line between regu-
lations concerning natural environment and those dealing
with cultural environment. The sole body to be responsible
for implementing the Convention provisions was the State
Council for Nature Conservation (Państwowa Rada Ochro-
ny Przyrody), which prepared a proposal for amendments
in the Polish nature conservation acts [2], environment pro-
tection acts [1] and spatial planning and management acts
[4]
1
. Then again, there is a provision set forth in the act on
monuments protection and care [3] which is already offer-
ing the broadest available possibilities to protect the cultural
and natural landscape in accordance with the requirements
and denition of the European Landscape Convention [14]
– following the concept of sustainable development and so-
cial involvement. Changes in the manner in which the cul-
tural landscape is perceived and in the methods employed
to protect its qualities are increasingly dened by factors
unrelated to conservation, but connected more with pres-
ent social needs or economic possibilities being treated as
superior aspects in conservation undertakings
2
.
*
University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Horticulture and Landscape
Design Faculty, Ornamental Plants and Landscape Design Institute.
1
Provisions of this amendment proposal concerning denition of the
landscape, broadening the denition of the landscape, landscape protection
denition, implementation of landscape quality standards have not been
implemented in the acts being amended [4].
2
In view of active protection of fortress landscape, a number of pri-
mary criteria have been established concerning adaptation, and secondary
criteria concerning directions of activities. The primary criteria include:
the manner of use in relation to recreational functions, land management
decisions, ownership forms, availability of the area in zoning plans. The
secondary criteria are the historical and natural as well as other additional
qualities. Auxiliary secondary criteria concern such factors as transporta-
tion issues and the surroundings [9].
At present, the only legal instrument following the
ongoing developments is the culture park notion, as it is
compliant with the contemporary, UNESCO recommend-
ed spatial formula, integrated landscape protection, cul-
ture and natural structures shaping the landscape [13].
The aim behind creating a cultural park is to preserve
and maintain the features of areas displaying valuable
landscape characteristics or their fragments, including the
relevant composition and view relations as well as har-
monious planning of development both within the park it-
self and in its surroundings [3]. It is only the cultural park
form that allows for comprehensive approach to the issue
of valuable area management, serving as a tool for local
authorities to supervise such areas by means of protection
plans, and consequently by local zoning plans [7].
A cultural park can be established by a commune
council by way of a resolution, in which the borders, man-
ner of protection as well as limitations and prohibitions
are dened [7]. In today’s fragmented spatial structures,
delineating clear borders may benet integration of ho-
mogenous parts of a landscape, intensifying its impor-
tance and identity, supports conscious management of the
area [9], [5].
A novelty in the Polish legal system is the provision
allowing for establishment of an “organizational unit for
managing a park”, which integrates passive protection
with management of the cultural resources. These statu-
tory provisions do not precisely dene either the formu-
la of the managing body or the range to be covered by
a cultural park protection plan – hence allowing room for
individual solutions, conditioned by the local characteris-
tics and protection objectives [7].
One of the recommended forms of management with
social involvement in case of complicated ownership situ-
ations is the intersectoral cooperation, which offers equal
chances for sustainable development of local communi-
ties. The cultural park formula motivates local authorities
to support this type of undertakings, also for the purpose
of preservation and promotion of their local heritage.
The public-private partnership initiative is gaining sig-
Katarzyna Pałubska*
Sustainable spatial policies in managing high-value cultural areas
150 Katarzyna Pałubska
nicant support the EU programmes and is of great rel-
evance in distribution of nancial means provided by the
Union [5].
Informative and educational activities aiming at local
communities and authorities are still insufcient, and er-
roneous interpretation of the cultural park as a land man-
agement form (i.e. ‘a green area’) and a source of limi-
tations and prohibitions obscuring local development is
a social barrier in popularising them. A document prepared
in 2005 by a team of the Cracow University of Technol-
ogy commissioned by the National Centre for Monument
Research and Documentation (Krajowy Ośrodek Badań
i Dokumentacji Zabytków) entitled Principles for estab-
lishing and management of culture parks, preparing pro-
tection plans [8] is a most exhaustive instruction support-
ing conservation professionals working on the local level.
The study dened a set of criteria that cultural landscapes
should meet in order to be qualied for protection when
implementing the cultural park formula:
– exceptional cultural value,
– complexity of the structure,
– ability to self-regulate (‘systemic’ character of the
landscape and the related necessity to involve local com-
munities with the entire sphere of social policies to the
protection activities).
Fulllment of the aims facing a cultural park largely
depends on the social attitude towards the very idea of
protection and on effective resolution of conicts which
may emerge between different groups of space users: pri-
vate owners, conservators, local governments and inhab-
itants. One of the principal ways to resolve conicts and
mitigate threats related to space management is to prepare
appropriate solutions while drawing up a protection plan
and zoning plan in consideration of the contemporary
methods of encouraging local communities participation.
A park cannot be created without successful liaison be-
tween the interested entities and co-nancing of organiza-
tional, design and conservation related activities. Hence
the guarantors of active protection of a cultural landscape
in form of a cultural park are the acceptance and support of
all interested parties
3
. As an indispensable part of process,
up-to-date information should be provided on the benets
of a cultural park and of the related developments [7].
3
Intensied informative and educational activities performed by
the author between March and December 2009 brought a signicant
improvement in the social attitude towards the idea to create the 19
th
Century Warsaw Fortress Culture Park. The project was launched with
a survey, which showed that in case of the selected defensive structures,
the inhabitants displayed total unawareness in identication of the his-
toric structure of the area, its history and need to preserve. Over 90% of
respondents did not understand the need to preserve the area in question
or its relations in composition of the larger fortress system operating at
the turn of 19
th
century. Seminars, workshops and promotion conducted
in cooperation with the city hall and owners, as well as distribution of
leaets, posters, and broadening activities beyond their local range by a
website and scientic articles brought an unexpectedly strong interest of
the citizens, local associations and scientic community from all over
the country. The effects of the promotional activities were gathered and
presented in a large publication entitled Warsaw Fortress: 19
th
century
fortication complex: consultations and assumptions to a protection plan
for the 19
th
Century Warsaw Fortress Culture Park [8].
The commonly observed aversion of the commune au-
thorities to passing new zoning plans, which is one of the
conditions to be met in order to establish a culture park, is
an obstacle to further expansion of this form of protection.
According to a report by the National Centre for Monu-
ment Research and Documentation published at the end
of 2009, only 20 culture parks were formally acknowl-
edged in Poland by 2003, and a number of initiatives were
blocked by rulings of administrative courts [16].
The initiative to create culture parks played a par-
ticularly important role in the experimental attainment
of historical defensive complexes. The year 2003 saw
the emergence of a country-wide drive to create fortress
culture parks, as a formula which suits perfectly the need
to protect largely dispersed and stretched defensive com-
plexes comprising integrated functional and spatial sys-
tems characterized by exceptional cultural and natural
values. The rst park of this type to be created in Poland
was the Srebrna Góra Fortress Cultural Park (Forteczny
Park Kulturowy Twierdzy Srebrna Góra) [11]
4
, and next
was the Kłodzko Fortress Cultural Park (Forteczny Park
Kulturowy Twierdzy Kłodzko). The Srebrna Góra park
is situated in Stoszowice commune, and, just like the
Kłodzko Fortress, encompassed a mountain fortress in its
unied borders. The communes of this region were most
interested in nding solutions ensuring self-nancing of
the preservation initiatives located in the communal areas.
For many years now, there has been some effort in creat-
ing fortress cultural parks in urban areas of large cities,
where the social and ownership issues dominate the con-
servation formula, such as in Cracow, Toruń, Przemyśl,
Zamość.
In case of the Przemyśl Fortress, the authors of con-
ceptual design from the Cracow University of Technology
proposed a complex of 14 Przemyśl Fortress Defensive
Landscape Cultural Parks, conceived partly as trans-bor-
der projects in partnership with Ukraine. In Cracow in
2003, 7 Cracow Fortress Defensive Landscape Cultural
Parks and one aviation park were accepted for establish-
ment. Works on creating the Zamość Fortress Cultural
Park commenced in 2006 and their aim is not only to
preserve the very nucleus of the UNESCO listed fortress,
but also to maintain the entire landscape surrounding it
and making it possible for the structure to be properly dis-
played in a harmonious open landscape.
In Poland there are also several cultural parks which,
despite their name, are not a form of legal protection but
an example of an idea for comprehensive management of
a dened area for the purposes of preservation and effec-
tive usage of highly valuable space of natural and cul-
tural qualities: the Gdańsk City Fortress Cultural Park and
the Hewelianum Centre, the Nysa Fortress Culture and
Nature Park, Cracow Aviation Cultural Park. In Warsaw,
advanced work on passing a resolution allowing for es-
tablishment of the 19
th
Century Warsaw Fortress Cultural
Park has been in the pipeline since 2005 [11].
4
The rst cultural park in Srebrna Góra was created back in 2002,
before the act on historic monuments protection and care was passed (in
2003).
Sustainable spatial policies in managing high-value cultural areas 151
References
[1] Act on environmental protection of 27 April 2001 (Journal of Laws
of 2008, No. 25, item 150 – unied).
[2] Act on nature protection of 16 April 2004 (Journal of Laws No. 92,
item 880).
[3] Act on historic monuments protection and care of 23 July 2003
(Journal of Laws, No. 162, item 1568).
[4] Act on spatial planning and management of 27 March 2003 (Journal
of Laws No. 80, item 717).
[5] Korzeń J., Myczkowski Z., Kaczyńska M., Korzeń K., Wielochow-
ska M., Projekt Planu Ochrony Wilanowskiego Parku Kulturowego,
typewriter copy – Fundacja Karkonowska, Jelenia Góra – Warszawa
2009, p. 89.
[6] Majchrowska A., Realizacja zapisów Europejskiej Konwencji Kra-
jobrazowej, Czasopismo Techniczne, zesz. 7A, Wyd. PK, Kraków
2007, pp. 179–184.
[7] Molski P., Postulaty utworzenia Parku Kulturowego Zespołu
XIX-wiecznych Fortykacji Twierdzy Warszawa, [in:] Pałubska K.,
Twierdza Warszawa: zespół XIX-wiecznych fortykacji: konsultacje
i założenia do projektu planu ochrony Parku Kulturowego Zespołu
XIX-wiecznych Fortykacji Twierdzy Warszawa, Miasto Stołeczne
Warszawa, Warszawa 2009, pp. 9–11.
[8] Myczkowski Z. et al., Zasady tworzenia parku kulturowego, zarzą-
dzania nim oraz sporządzania planu jego ochrony, typewriter copy
comissioned by KOBIDZ, Kraków 2005, p. 18.
[9] Myczkowski Z., Tożsamość miejsca w ochronie i kształtowaniu
krajobrazu kulturowego, [in:] Krajobrazy, ODZ in Warsaw and
ROSiOŚK in Kraków, Kraków 2000, pp. 199–214.
[10] Pałubska K., Tereny dziewiętnastowiecznej Twierdzy Warszawa jako
elementy struktury rekreacyjnej miasta, PhD thesis at the Architec-
ture Faculty of the Warsaw University of Technology, Warszawa
2009, p. 224.
[11] Pałubska K. (ed.), Twierdza Warszawa: zespół XIX-wiecznych
fortykacji: konsultacje i założenia do projektu planu ochrony
Parku Kulturowego Zespołu XIX-wiecznych Fortykacji Twierdzy
Warszawa, Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa, Warszawa 2009, pp. 145.
[12] Pilarczyk G., Bryła S., Program Hewelianum jako droga do rewi-
talizacji zespołu Fortu Grodzisko w Gdańsku, [in:] Wilkaniec A.,
Wichrowski M., Fortykacje w przestrzeni miasta, Wyd. Akademii
Rolniczej w Poznaniu, Poznań 2006, pp. 141–148.
[13] The Convention on the Protection of World Cultural and Natural
Heritage adopted in Paris on 16.11.1972 by the UN General Confer-
ence (Journal of Laws of 1976 No. 32, item 190).
[14] The European Landscape Convention, adopted in Florence on 20
October 2000 (Journal of Laws of 2006, No. 14, item 98).
[15] Tokarczuk T., Granice krajobrazu w przestrzeni kulturowej, PhD
thesis at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technical University of
Cracow, Kraków 2006, p. 9.
[16] www.kobidz.pl/idm,871,parki-kulturowe.html
Zrównoważona polityka przestrzenna wobec obszarów o wyjątkowych wartościach kulturowych
Ochronę prawną złożonych struktur krajobrazu kulturowego oraz
zrównoważone wykorzystanie jego walorów do aktywizacji gospodarczej,
promocji regionu i rozwoju turystyki najskuteczniej umożliwia formuła
parku kulturowego. Aktywizacja lokalnych środowisk przy określaniu
zasad i granic dopuszczalnej ingerencji w planie ochrony stanowi bazę
do prowadzenia polityki przestrzennej w zakresie ochrony wartości kul-
turowo-przyrodniczych i zagospodarowania terenu. Utworzenie jednostki
zarządzającej parkiem kulturowym wspomaga budowanie partnerstwa
międzysektorowego, ułatwia zdobywanie funduszy, pośrednio wpływając
na poprawę jakości życia mieszkańców i kulturę przestrzeni.
Key words: sustainable planning, culture park, management Słowa kluczowe: planowanie zrównoważone, park kulturowy, zarzą-
dza nie