The name is absent

C) CULTURAL HERITAGE ENTITIES

This category focuses on the interaction of different cultural elements and on their spatial pattern. It
can be conceived as the result of the superimposition of different heritage assets on a territory
and/or the composition of different (more or less homogeneous) heritage markers.

Art cities, “cultural districts” and other types of cultural landscapes can be included in this category,
like cultural routes which may extend well over regional boundaries to determine an element of
integration and cohesion between regions of Europe. There is no physical address but rather an
induced “delimitation” of a territory coming from the recognition of a “common cultural element”
over the physical space.

In this category the production of culture-based goods is also included. Specialised handicrafts
(artistic glass, jewellery, textile production and fashion) and the so-called “produits du terroir”
(food and wine, herbs, thermal treatments, etc.) may not be inherited from the past but so are the
skills and social networks which enable their production. They are thus part of the material cultural
heritage of a territory (Moreno et al., 2004): the expression of localised know-how and savoir vivre
that define identity. Culture-based goods have spatially delimited production locations (cultural
production districts, as defined by Santagata 2004) and remain symbolically attached to this
location (e.g. Delft’s blue porcelain, DOC wines), though they are commercialised and circulated
worldwide⁷.

Cultural production districts or clusters have a strong local embedding as peculiar forms of
organisation of the economy and the society of an area, and an economic impact deriving from their
nature of export assets. The spatial analysis of these clusters (which may extend over regional
borders and/or be markedly concentrated into urban areas) is important both for the full
comprehension of the territorial patterns of cultural heritage dynamism and for the development of
spatial planning guidelines. These could and should support the cultural economy as a key strategic
sector for European regions. A possible discriminator for cultural production clusters which have
recognition and are likely to produce spatial effects is to take into consideration only those material
cultural products which are regulated by a collective property right or trademark. In this category
the following groups are included:

C Cultural heritage entities or cultural landscapes

C 1 Sites containing several or all above mentioned categories: art cities, regions, cultural complexes

C 2 Cultural Routes

C 3 Clusters of culture-based products

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