Pilgrimage route recovery in an industrial landscape

Abstract

Pilgrimage is an activity having a long tradition within the European historical context, and it has contributed to the overall spiritual aspect of European landscapes. Since the nineteenth century, however, the mining industry has strongly transformed many of those landscapes. The intangible cultural and spiritual values have been neglected in the process of mine rehabilitation. The aim of the present paper is to introduce a methodological approach to recovering the pilgrimage tradition in a post-mining landscape. The approach was developed in a case study regarding recovery of the Czech Republic's Osek–Mariánské Radšice pilgrimage route. Applying the principles of preservation, paraphrasing, evocation, and a new structure, the methodological framework for pilgrimage route recovery was designed and a variety of methodological issues regarding conflict between industrialism and the holy spirit of the original landscape were addressed.

Keywords:

• mine reclamation
• pilgrimage
• religious tourism
• landscape planning

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the mining company Severoceske Doly a.s. and The Project Solutions s.r.o. The authors owe special thanks to Katerina Vrbova for her great help in the study design.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.