Vineyard’s Cultural Landscape in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain): evolution and transformations

Abstract

The autonomous community of Castilla-La Mancha is the region with the biggest vineyard area of Spain. The rural landscape is totally adapted to the geographical conditions of the Mediterranean Europe, with signs of proper identity derived from its historical tradition and a peculiar way of working the territory by the population. Its natural dynamics and complexity, consequence of the capacity to adapt to social and economic processes which have conditioned it over time, is united to the importance of the agricultural structure. This work has the objective to analyse that kind of process with the analysis of the vineyard’s historical evolution, transformations derived from the application of the Common Agrarian Policy of the European Union, and its undeniable cultural nature that means an interesting potential to contribute to the territorial development.

Keywords

• vineyard landscape
• castilla-la mancha
• evolution
• cultural landscape