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Rzeźba i architektura parkowa amerykańskich pól bitewnych : historia, stan obecny i problemy konserwacji

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Zwiech T.

Ochrona Zabytków

1994

issue 2

197-201

The preservation history of American Civil War battlefields (1861-1865) is, in the sense of preservation philosophy, a phenomenon without precedent. It would be hard to find preservation examples of cultural or natural properties, which have had an equally complicated origin, motivation, history and elevated level of social involvement. The process started very early, sometimes right after the battle was finished. Preservation of the battlefields usually found its beginning in the need to bury dead soldiers and in the case of many battlefields the nucleus of their preservation was a cemetery (Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Manassas, Stones River). Following the burial of soldiers, examples of organized tourism occurred such as a refreshment stand set up by a Virginia veteran beside Fort Stedman in Petersburg in 1865, or a battlefield guidebook outlining a 20-mile horseback tour published in 1866, also in Petersburg. The next stage was usually the creation of numerous associations comprised of Civil War veterans and members of local communities in order to commemorate particular battles. These commemorations typically occurred in the form of marking places of more important events on previously purchased land. The associations were often formed during war reunions, as was the case in Pea Ridge and Chickamauga & Chattanooga. The appearance of the battlefields at that time, which were very well preserved in most cases, is astonishingly similar to the arrangements used in English landscape gardens of the early part of the 18th century. In both cases there are extensive open areas, inward and outward views focused on sculptures and structures of antique character, carefully laid out and screened with naturalistic groves and woods. Large ponds and rivers, very frequent in English landscape gardens but rather uncommon on battlefields, make the most important difference. However, true analogies between those two kinds of spatial arrangement lies much deeper than in a level of park layout. First of all, there are the same Anglo-Saxon cultural roots of both societies. Esthetic rules of park design established on the British Isles at the turn of 17th and 18th century arrived in America with the colonials long before the Declaration of Independence, not to mention the Civil War. Favourable natural conditions helped implement these esthetic rules and eventually have them recognized as a firm element of American tradition. In August 1933, the Government Reorganization Act was implemented and most historic parks and monuments administred by various federal agencies were turned over to the National Park Service. With the new administration there were new preservation methods, among them the reconstruction of the battlefields’ historic image. Although post-war, the monuments, statues and markers went through that historic landscape restoration unscathed, probably thanks to the famous American pragmatism which once again managed to fight absurdity of purism. By saving monuments, statues and markers a respect was shown to their builders whose feelings were imprinted on their works. That respect could be called a preservation of the social and ideological aspects of the battlefield landscape. The example of American battlefields preservation deserves some attention by Polish landscape architects and historic preservationists at least for two reasons. First, there is the need to work out a program of preservation for Polish cultural landscapes in relation to the ammendment to the law on historic preservation issued in July 1990. A document: „Rules of the Preservation of Cultural Landscapes”, being currently produced in the Center for the Preservation of Historic Landscapes, could serve such purposes. The other reason are increased interests in the preservation of historic battlefields, still growing in the world and in Poland.

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1 Ochrona Zabytków

1 Zwiech T.

1 1994

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Rzeźba i architektura parkowa amerykańskich pól bitewnych : historia, stan obecny i problemy konserwacji