Transition and Transformation of a Rural Landscape: Abandonment and Rewilding

Abstract

The concepts of slow environmental change through evolutionary processes associated with ordinary artefacts from Central European rural life as part of biogeographical morphology was studied in Goričko Landscape Park, northeastern Slovenia. The research was based on field observations, including the recording of a former aristocratic dwelling and two small rural farmsteads, all abandoned. An analysis of the extant residual artefacts, their in situ placement and their former utility was undertaken. The value of residual items in ascertaining local perceptions, occupations and utilizations of landscape resources, from various viewpoints, was discussed in relationship to the surrounding landscape. The authors found that the abandoned rural buildings are now utilised as a faunal habitat, and the ruins were reincorporated into the wider landscape. The study sites represent empty places in the process of returning to nature after the retreat of human activities. The research examined the transition and transformation of biodegradable/non-biodegradable components within a rural landscape.