Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 15th International scientific conference “Underground Urbanisation as a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development” Russian Paysages in realities of the modern world Maria Nashchokina a,* a Research Institute of Theory and History of Architecture and Urban Planning of the Russian Academy of Architecture and Building Sciences, 105264, Moscow, Russia Abstract This message is dedicated to the Russian Paysage that is virtually completely ignored by developers and businessmen Being a part of the cultural paysage of our country, each paysage is considered in terms of the customary relations between people and the Nature, work skills, the morality of the nation and its culture Natural and artificial paysages are ever changing but they still have certain constants that determine their value Conducting an inventory survey of paysages (of national, regional and local value) and assigning them with a legal status would help improve the building and economic activities Paysages of various geographical areas differ in the spatial continuity, size, barrier configuration, isolation (openness), visual focus points (mountains, hills, lakes, stand-alone trees, etc.), and the individual correlation of such elements determines the paysage value The so-called curtains in the foreground often determine the depth of the overall picture, which is why they play an important part in the perception of the paysage All of the elements need to be registered and saved as part of unique protected paysages To save what is left of the natural beauty, municipal authorities came up with special protective regimes, visibility sectors, etc that are sometimes not enough to effectively protect the historical sight and views Country paysages are even less protected by the law As a rule, even in natural reserves beautiful paysages are not registered or considered to be an independent type of heritage Man-made paysages differ from natural ones in terms of the cultural content: they are some kind of living pictures portraying certain stages of development of the country and the people Various paysages of Russia – city, country, mansion, industrial, memorial or painted paysages (by Russian painters and writers) – form an integral part of our visual perception of Russia Our mission is to raise awareness about the need to take care of the beauty of Nature to eventually avoid unreasonable using, i.e wasting of the territory and natural resources 2016The TheAuthors Authors Published by Elsevier © 2016 © Published by Elsevier Ltd Ltd This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 15th International scientific conference “Underground Peer-review under scientific committee of the 15th International scientific conference “Underground Urbanisation as a Urbanisation as aresponsibility Prerequisite of fortheSustainable Development Prerequisite for Sustainable Development Keywords: Russian Paysages, different types of Paysages, reservs, national parks, open-air museums * Corresponding author Tel.: +7-926-398-16-50 E-mail address: n_maria53@mail.ru 1877-7058 © 2016 The Authors Published by Elsevier Ltd This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 15th International scientific conference “Underground Urbanisation as a Prerequisite for Sustainable Development doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.938 Maria Nashchokina / Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 1889 Introduction The first evidence of nature protection measures dates back to time immemorial: the first nature reserve and the wildlife protection law are believed to have been adopted in Sri Lanka in the III century BC Belavezha and Tsuman forests were the first conservation area established in the Ancient Russia in the XIII centuryunder a decree of Prince Daniel Galitsky Similarly, in the XVII century specific woods around Moscow were turned into nature reserves to create hunting areas for Tsar Alexey Mikhailovich Those were not the nature reserve as we know them today but chopping woods and hunting were not allowed in Prince’s forests Over the last 100-150 years the people have been preserving natural and architectural sights in the following basic forms: reserves (the first nature reserve of Russia is the Barguzinsky Reserve, 1916) [11];national parks (the first national park in the world is Yellowstone National Park,1872, the first European park is located in Swiss cantonGraubunden,1914,the first Russian national park is the SochiPark,1983, the most recent park opened in Russia is the Russian Arcticin the Arkhangelsk Region,2009) - Currently in Russia there are 101 public nature reserves with the total area of about 33 mn ha, i.e around 2% of Russia’s territory); 41 national parks (8 mn ha, 0.5%); 69 federal wildlife sanctuaries (19 mn ha, 1.2 %) and about 12,000 regional wildlife sanctuaries and 39 federal natural monuments; wildlife sanctuaries (one of the first ones to be opened in Russia is Tseysky Wildlife Sanctuary in the Northern Ossetia,1958); skansens or open-air museums (the first one in the world is located in Stockholm,1891, the first Russian open-air museum is located in Kolomenskoe,1920s), etc.; memorial estates or estate museums (one of the first ones is located in Mount Vernon near Washington,1858; the first estate museums were established in Russia in 1920s but, as a matter of fact, they were created late in the XIX century by enlightened owners who cared about the cultural heritage of their ancestors (Currently in Russia, there are about 40 estate museums and approximately 30 memorial mansion estates) With time there developed the concept of a cultural paysage, i.e the paysage created with human efforts Over the last years the forms of preservation of such paysages (including city paysages) in the world have grown in number; for example, in the United Kingdom the historical paysages along the Thames were registered in detail and are carefully protected Russians also use those forms of preservation from time to time But the above-mentioned forms of preservation of cultural and natural heritage are used to preserve very specific sight that are truly unique and often quite large (e.g., Baikal, Suzdal, Kizhi) From now on I would like to focus on another type of the heritage that has no special status yet and is basically ignored by developers and businessmen – the Russian paysage, in particular, highly balanced yet unprotected paysages that are most likely not a part of any reserves (where it would be easier to preserve them, although there are certain obstacles) but as a whole they create our perception of the comprehensive artistic image of Russia The word paysage (le paysage) means ‘locality’ in French just like the word landscape in German (die Landschaft) But in the Russian language we use both words that have gained additional meanings Landscapes a comprehensive geographical term encompassing numerous related components (climate, relief, water, soil, flora and fauna), which means it has a more general sense than the word ‘paysage’, a more neural sense in terms of emotions and assessments A paysage is a type of locality, which apriority implies that there is a place from where you can see it and an observer; in particular, it is a special genre of easel painting In other words, any paysage, even if it has been damaged, is an image of a landscape as perceived by a person [7] Our country is incredibly beautiful, each region has its own beauty, and at a first glance, you would not think that preserving the Russian paysage is such a priority Russia is so vast and, thank God, there are still a lot of beautiful natural and architectural sights But anyone of us can remember a lot of places that used to be beautiful but were damaged or completely lost their aesthetic value All of that is due to thoughtless, wasteful construction and economic activities For example, here is a quote of a Moscow reporter lamenting back in 1910s: ‘City workers are chopping down shady words… And it will not take long before the scents of the pine and violet are replaced with the disgusting smell of the city sewage system They will cut ponds and gutter for sewage disposals and poison the fragrant oxygenated air of this woody little place with the gleet of a big city In fact, it is a bad thing to be a neighbor to such Babylon as Moscow (Dachnik, M., 1912, p.2.) It truly is a bad thing Too many wonderful natural sites were dismantled and covered with concrete of Moscow streets in the XX century! And not only in Moscow Today we realize that it was not necessary: they could have carefully adjusted the development to the special features of the locality and its relief All of those destroyed rivers, 1890 Maria Nashchokina / Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 small woods, ponds, beautiful country houses and churches could have become the structural spotlight of the development However, they did not… Such a barbarian attitude to the Nature and our history that was not backed up by any human emotions was and still is explained as economic efficiency Islands of natural and man-made harmony are disappearing not only in Moscow but also in the Moscow Region We assume that over the recent years the rate at which natural beauties in Russia are being destroyed has increased multiple times To save what is left of the natural beauty, the authorities of historical cities came up with special protective zone regimes, visibility sectors, etc But, frankly speaking, sometimes they are not enough to effectively protect the historical sights and views The regulators have done even less than that to preserve beautiful natural and architectural country landscapes They are very reluctant to establish special seashore protective regimes: the one and only Russian marine reserve is the State Far Eastern Marine Reserve (1978) in the Peter The Great Bay in the Sea of Japan.As a rule, even in wildlife sanctuaries and natural reserves beautiful paysages are not registered or considered to be an independent type of heritage even though those are the places where we can actually preserve them based on old photo shoots, artwork and other documentary evidence Moreover, in nature reserves and national parks (e.g Kenozersky Park) that comprise existing settlements there are no laws and virtually no measures regarding the preservation of the traditional image of country developments whose owners are starting to apply new construction solutions, materials, colorants, etc more and more actively There is still no moratorium on privatization of the land located in nature reserves and national parks, which may well create a lot of obstacles to their normal existence in the future We all know how quickly the forest heritage of Russia has being destroyed over the recent years; in accordance with the law the river and lake water protective zones near large cities have been decreased; the agricultural land that used to be cultivated is now being prepared for (often unnecessary) commercial development All of those efforts combined result in large-scale visual degradation of our environment, i.e the Russian paysage, virtually everywhere.[3, p.44] A lot of people might think that allocation of country land for cottage development is a positive thing because more people can enjoy the country lifestyle But in many places in the Moscow vicinity the entire are is covered with cottage development sites with no space for the nature; fields, woods and forests – they are all turned into a development site: there are fences everywhere and they have grown higher… It was Chekhov who wittingly noted: ‘They say that a person needs only three arshins of land But it is actually a dead body that needs those three arshins, not a person (…) A person does not need three arshins or a mansion; he needs the entire Earth, all of the Nature where he would feel free to demonstrate all of his skills and the nature of his free spirit (“Gooseberries” by A Chekhov) That is why sustainable management, primarily, implies the protection of the cultural and historical potential of the place, traditional trades of local residents, the preservation of its natural beauty, space, man-made and natural sights [1, p.48-52] Unfortunately, more often than not we can state the opposite Man-made and natural paysages are disappearing, usually the more perfect, unique (i.e vulnerable) a paysage is, the quicker it goes Those losses are not recorded anywhere, they are hard to count, and they only touch people who can appreciate the beauty [5] Asaresult, uncontrollable global spreading of the surrounding disharmony makes modern people deaf to the beauty of the Art, which may well lead to the loss of the comfortable visual environment and the Russian paysage in all of its aspects That is why we believe that it is essential to preserve it Each paysage is a piece of a certain part of the cultural landscape, and each nation transforms it in view of the customary relations between people and the Nature, work skills, the morality of the nation and its culture There are different types of paysages: natural and artificial Both types are ever changing but they still have certain constants that actually determine their value Paysages can be classified in terms of their value: national, regional and local If detailed inventory surveys of paysageswere enacted into law and conducted at all levels (at least in suburbs of big cities), we could have drastically decreased the scope of current unbalanced transformations and partially improve the construction and economic activities Eventually, humanizing cultural landscapes means stabilizing and conserving the natural habitat of human beings Natural paysages broken down by various geographical areas can be described in terms of spatial continuity, size, barrier configuration, isolation (openness) and visual focus points They are composed of the sky, earth, rivers, trees, Maria Nashchokina / Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 1891 grass, etc., and the individual correlation of such elements determines the paysage value Natural paysages include views observed from high points of a specific area Besides visible borders of that space and visual focus points (mountains, hills, lakes, stand-alone trees, etc.), what matters is their hierarchy and color adequacy as well as visual barriers, their size and configuration For example, the so-called curtains in the foreground often determine the depth of the overall picture, which is why they play an important part in the perception of the paysage.All of the elements need to be registered and saved as part of unique protected paysages Man-made paysages differ from natural ones in terms of the cultural content: they are some kind of living pictures portraying certain stages of development of the country and the people They can be divided into several main types: Here introduce the paper, and put a nomenclature if necessary, in a box with the same font size as the rest of the paper The paragraphs continue from here and are only separated by headings, subheadings, images and formulae The section headings are arranged by numbers, bold and 10 pt Here follows further instructions for authors City Paysage The most valuable paysages in this category are historical paysages preserving the image of the city of previous historical stages Sometimes their value is not limited to the historical and cultural world, it is timeless Over the last century many Russian historical cities have lost their historical image including the first Russian port Arkhangelsk and the centers of such large cities as Ulyanovsk (former Simbirsk), Kirov (Vyatka), Kostroma, etc.; the losses are irreparable An urgent issue for small towns has seen a rise of uncontrollable construction activities over the last years For example, let’s look at ancient Zvenigorod that was established in the XI century (see fig.1) Fig.1 View of Zvenigorod from the West Postcard early twentieth century The following words were written about the town late in the XIX century: ‘Zvenigorod is a district town of the Moscow Province, situated 50 versts to the west away from Moscow on a high arduous hill The location is very beautiful Being a part of the center of the Principality of Moscow, Zvenigorod (…) is considered second to Moscow in terms of its age Over the last two years, despite the public outcry, the silhouettes of residential skyscrapers have risen over the ancient town 1892 Maria Nashchokina / Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 Fig.2 Modern buildings in Zvenigorod But the view of Gorodok (i.e the former Zvenigorod castle) from the opposite bank of the Moscow River is a unique, one-of-a-kind historical paysage The combination of its architecture and the surrounding nature lets you take a glimpse of the Ancient Moscow Russia of the XV century – the country of great artist Andrei Rublev who, as we know, painted the Assumption Cathedral in Gorodok It is obvious that had we taken good care of our heritage, that paysage would not have been lost – what a silly, meaningless loss! Country Paysage In various places in Russia there are amazingly beautiful panoramic views including the river terrace near Trubchevsk, views of the meadow from Podvyazye Mansion by Nizhny Novgorod, a view of Solotchi and many others (see Fig.3) Fig.3 View of the surroundings from the estate Podvyazie (Nizhny Novgorod region) Historical country paysages that represent the overall image of Russia and are of national importance include Valaam Island Country paysages of national value also include views of Mezen village Kimzha In its own unique way it strikes an observer with the unbelievable balance of the nature and architecture and relatively well-preserved components of the natural and man-made paysage that became a class by itself To prevent architectural and natural degradation, we need to make sure the village is maintained on a regular basis [4, p 220-225] But who can and should initiate such work? Maria Nashchokina / Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 1893 The best example of harmonious country paysages of regional and local importance is the already mentioned Zvenigorod Its suburbs have been long known for their beauty glorified by all memoir writers and travellers who called those places the Savvinskaya Switzerland because it resembled them Baden-Baden in Schwarzwald Up until the end of the XX century there remained the visual harmony of the nature and country settlements interlaced with plough land, woods and groves connected through the narrow, meandering Moscow River with feeders It is the best place to feel the unique nature of the Moscow Region: twisting rivers, pine forests on their banks, former flow-water meadows and plowed fields Writer and historian Nikolay Karamzindescribed Zvenigorod lands with the following admiring words: ‘I have never seen such rich flora: flowers, grass and trees are full of some special power and freshness, linden and oak trees are magnificent, the road from there to Moscow is the most pleasing to the eyes, a hilly area but such wonderful views!’ It might seem obvious that we need to preserve all that beauty: there is no other place like Zvenigorod hills in the Moscow suburbs: they are the perfect combination of the natural and man-made beauty and the unique historical and memorial value However, the new owners of these lands have other plans: the tiny town has been expanding at an incredible rate; the marvelous terrace of the Moscow River has been flooded with twenty-story residential buildings, which remain half-empty because not a lot of people can afford them, unfortunately the paysages painted by Viktor Borisov-Musato and Maria Yakunchikova have already been distorted How can we stop wasting the unique cultural landscape due to irrational town-planning development projects? Mansion Paysage The mansion paysage is easily the rarest type that is becoming extinct Now only large memorial estates (such as the Pushkin Mountains and Yasnaya Polyana) can fully preserve this type of paysages [8, 9] We all know that recently even the management of such memorial estates has a hard time protecting views from the mansion out to the surrounding fields and villages due to the attacks of wealthy developers Other reserves and national parks also face similar challenges because sooner or later their beautiful, eco-safe lands attract potential developers And mind you that we are talking about reserves protected by the law! Paysages in other memorial estates (even the most unique ones) are subject to even less protection, if any Many wonderful, still preserved mansion paysages – alas – are doomed No doubt, the unique mansion paysage of national importance is the view of meadows and woods on the opposite bank of the river from the upper and lower terraces on the parterre in front of the Arkhangelskoye Palace It is a miraculously spared ancient mansion universe Fig.4 The view from the Belvedere of the main house in estate Arkhangelskoye (Moscow region) To destroy that paysage means to affect the entire mansion ensemble of the global value by depriving it of the paysage space around which the initial design was built However, over recent years there have been consecutive attempts to reduce the park area, and now there are plans to implement dense development projects along the entire terrace of the Moscow River within the Arkhangelskoye view 1894 Maria Nashchokina / Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 Industrial Paysage Paysages of dams, old textile mills, flouring mills, old manufactories, foundries and salt farms, etc scattered around the Central Russia possess an undeniable historical and aesthetic value Often they were designed to highlight the surrounding beauty and melt into the nature [2, p.72] Fig.5 Former Factory Stieglitz on the banks of the Neva river in St Petersburg Without a doubt, historical industrial paysages are a bright illustration of the development stages of Russia Fig.6 The form of nuclear power plant for lake Udomlya (Tver region) Small wooden saltworks in the Russian North, various river and railway bridges and magnificent paysages such asviews of river dams, etc are just as important We cannot not mention memorial paysages [6,p 606] and landscape paintings that were portrayed in significant Russian paintings and books We cannot afford losing the view of the Oka River near Tarusa painted on Vasily Maria Nashchokina / Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 1895 Polenov’s Golden Autumn, views of pine forests on Gorodomlya Island on the Seliger Lake where Ivan Shishkin painted his Mast-Tree Grove and Morning in a Pine Forest, or paysages near Abramtsevo (Moscow Region) that was used as a background for Viktor Vasnetsov’s Bogatyrs and Mikhail Nesterov’s The Vision of the Youth Bartholomew We would lose so much if we can no longer enjoy the wonderful paysages of Shakhmatovo and Boblovo mansions in the Moscow Region that were praised in Alexander Block’s poems or the bank of the Moscow River and adjacent fields near Dunino glorified by writer Mikhail Prishvin Fig.7 The estate of Writer M M Prishvin in estate Dunyno (Moscow region) Certainly, the list can go on and on No doubt, our essay about various paysages that are in corporated into our image of Russia is short and incomplete Our mission is to raise awareness about the need to take care of the beauty of Nature to eventually avoid unreasonable using, i.e wasting of the territory and natural resources To draw the future nearer, we need to start talking about it right now And to quote Albert Schweitzer: ‘The only possible way out of the chaos is to embrace the vision rooted in the culture and abide by its ideas of the true culture (Quoted from K Voytyla Basics of Ethics // Philosophical Matters, 1981, Vol 1, p 32.).’ Conclusion In conclusion, let us ask a childish question: why would the future down-to-earth generations need the harmony of the preserved Russian paysage? From the scientific point of view, they need it for self-identification and selfawareness as a cultural nation Moreover, they need it to stay connected to their motherland: the Russian history and beauty have always contributed to the personal growth by developing the spiritual depth and power of the person linked to the history of their ancestors with invisible threads In today’s quickly changing world in Russia where greed and desire to get rich overnight often prevail aggressively preventing from implementation of many cultural initiatives aimed to preserve the natural and architectural heritage of our country, we need the places of stability preserving the beauty and memory of our history They should include not only architectural and nature reserves (the amount of which will be naturally increasing on a regular basis) or estate museums of famous writers, poets, artists and scientists but also carefully preserved paysages of national, regional and local value Paysages that would make you proud not only of our past but of our present that managed to save their beauty 1896 Maria Nashchokina / Procedia Engineering 165 (2016) 1888 – 1896 References [1] María García-Martín, Claudia Bieling, Abigail Hart, Tobias Plieninger Integrated landscape initiatives in Europe: Multi-sector collaboration in multi-functional landscapes Land Use Policy, Volume 58, 15 December 2016, pp 43-53 [2] Luís LouresPost-industrial landscapes as drivers for urban redevelopment: Public versus expert perspectives towards the benefits and barriers of the reuse of post-industrial sites in urban areas Habitat International, Volume 45, Part 2, January 2015, pp 72-81 [3] Marco Vizzari, MauriziaSigura Landscape sequences along the urban–rural–natural gradient: A novel geospatial approach for identification and analysis Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 140, August 2015, pp 42-55 [4] Massimo Rovai, Maria Andreoli, Simone Gorelli, Heikki Jussila A DSS model for the governance of sustainable rural landscape: A first application to the cultural landscape of Orcia Valley (Tuscany, Italy) Land Use Policy, Volume 56, November 2016, pp 217-237 [5] Nerida M Anderson, Rebecca M Ford, Kathryn J.H Williams Contested beliefs about land-use are associated with divergent representations of a rural landscape as place Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 157, January 2017, pp 75-89 [6] Erik Andersson, Stephan Barthel Memory carriers and stewardship of metropolitan landscapes Ecological Indicators, Volume 70, November 2016, pp 606-614 [7] Isabel Loupa Ramos, Fátima Bernardo, Sónia Carvalho Ribeiro, Veerle Van Eetvelde Landscape identity: Implications for policy making Land Use Policy, Volume 53, May 2016, pp 36-43 [8] Jana Špulerová, Veronika Piscová, Katarína Gerhátová, Andrej Bača, Henrik Kalivoda, Róbert Kanka Orchards as traces of traditional agricultural landscape in Slovakia Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, Volume 199, January 2015, pp 67-76 [9] Grzegorz Orłowski, Lech Nowak The importance of marginal habitats for the conservation of old trees in agricultural landscapes Landscape and Urban Planning, Volume 79, Issue 1, 15 January 2007, pp 77-83 [10] S Borgström, R Lindborg, T Elmqvist Nature conservation for what? 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