Abstract
Abstract. Sondondo is an inter-Andean valley located between 3,500 and 4,500 meters above sea level. Inhabited, transformed and modelled since ancient times by the local rural communities, an extraordinary cultural landscape has been created through their particular relationship with the environment. Since the pre-Hispanic settlements (Wari 600 AD), through colonial indigenous “reductions”, to the villages of vernacular architecture, which are at the foundation of contemporary populated centres, the territory has been variously and successively settled, inhabited and transformed. Its vernacular architecture has evolved at multiple scales, from domestic architecture to urban structures. It has created spaces for agriculture and livestock herding, and the spectacular agricultural andenerías (farming platforms and terraces) that have shaped the territory for centuries. The latter simultaneously developed irrigation infrastructures and techniques. The result is a landscape of great plastic effects, in a geographical setting bordered by the apus – tutelar mountains – traditionally “sacralized” by the Andean cultures. Such enormous architectural-landscape legacy is now threatened by imported global models of false modernity disrupting the fragile balance of lifestyles and territories. The objective of this research project, ongoing since 2016, is to assess this territory, catalogue its vernacular architecture and landscape units. It also aims to propose projects and initiatives for sustainable local development. The work has been made available to the Ministry of Culture of Peru to support its request before UNESCO to include the site in its World Heritage List.
Highlights
This did include different plant and animal species, but they the land itself through gradual cumulative transformations aimed at assuring vital water supplies, building adequate topsoil for production, and managing climate conditions. They aimed at creating ideal conditions for agriculture and animal herding in territories not naturally adequate for, or posed serious restrictions to, farming. Transforming such diverse territories across the different regions of Peru resulted in multiple cultural landscapes
Even more so if we consider them as an invaluable testimony of the historical processes of productive specialization demanded by these transformations
We feel it is of utmost importance to assess the legacy assets of Sondondo Valley and their registration in the UNESCO Tentative submitted by the Ministry of Culture. This constitutes a first step towards the valley’s nomination as a World Heritage site. Such nomination can be a fundamental tool for its safeguarding, and to protect the vernacular architectural legacy of this exceptional cultural landscape from growing deterioration and destruction
Summary
This did include different plant and animal species, but they the land itself through gradual cumulative transformations aimed at assuring vital water supplies, building adequate topsoil for production, and managing climate conditions. Such nomination can be a fundamental tool for its safeguarding, and to protect the vernacular architectural legacy of this exceptional cultural landscape from growing deterioration and destruction This requires preparing territorial and urban planning guidelines to regulate interventions that are essential to meet modern day needs. They will provide adequate and relevant responses to help preserve the invariant characteristics of the valley’s legacy architecture and landscape They will lay down the foundations for sustainable local development planning, and the ongoing and sustainable adaptation of this living landscape’s traditional lifestyles to contemporary ones. Pathetic situations arise such as the ones in Cusco and the Urubamba valley, euphemistically called the "Sacred Valley of the Incas", where tourist mercantilism has turned archaeological monuments into a sort of theme parks This irreparably degrades the territorial legacy and vernacular architecture of the historical centres of a cultural landscape of exceptional quality. This contributed to the best knowledge of the site and local communities’ wisdom
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