From the Territory of the Village to the Village Landscape in the Nansa Valleys (Cantabria)

Abstract

The methodological and conceptual foundations that guide the development of this
paper are grounded on two considerations about the definitions of the territory and the village
as facts or superimposed layers that shape up these valleys. 1) The current territory is the
result of the evolution of the geological foundation by transformations accumulated over time
throughout history due to natural processes and human interventions. The territorial heritage
includes this temporal and spatial overlap of historical heritages. 2) The medieval village can
be defined as a community of neighbors equipped with a specific socio-political personality
who live and exploit a specific area delimited as a term itself. In this space, the village builds
and develops all its activities as an organizational model that must be repeated through the
valleys and mountains and finds legal expression in local ordinances. The village is the cell
that makes up the structure of the territory. A third consideration relates to the landscape,
understood as the image —and interpretation— of the territory. The village landscapes have
been constructed and inserted into the large units defined by geomorphologic base reliefs. The
valley landscape is from this perspective, the sum of the village landscape.