The cultural landscape of the Pas valleys in Burgos: memory, construction, and project

Abstract

The Pas valleys, located in northern Spain between Burgos and Cantabria, are a landscape of high cultural and environmental value. While the Cantabrian side is better known and has been more developed for tourism, the Burgos side has barely experienced this, which has kept it in a more pristine state until now. To make its preservation viable and sustainable, it is necessary to understand its features and design with a vision of the future. This place must be analyzed taking into consideration its “landscape unity”, meaning from a multidisciplinary perspective that encompasses geography, ethnography, culture, society, infrastructures, and architecture. This landscape is the dynamic result of an evolving way of life, characterized by the combination of bovine breeding with an herbal optimization system based on the successive exploitation of farms located at different altitudes, among which the family-productive unit moved throughout the year (transterminance). This modus vivendi, where the cow is the fundamental pillar, is different today from the past, with the resulting impact on the landscape. The solution lies in finding a territorial economic system that balances the traditional stockbreeding with the arrival of new residents who understand and respect its essence and memory. Currently, the state of conservation is good at all scales, from the plots of land to the cabins or the walls. It is necessary to protect it by establishing frameworks for new occupation and construction systems, so that the economic activity is not paralyzed and the opportunities for revitalization are not hindered, while ensuring the preservation of a cultural landscape whose exceptional heritage quality is the main driver for its own conservation.