THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE IN DANGER OF BAY OF KOTOR
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Nowadays native people have lost connection with the local environment in Bay of Kotor ; this has happened by changing the way people use landscape and by vanishing the active cultivation of the same . Moreover , the way the landscape is used has drastically changed after the last earthquake in 1979 ; furthermore , over the last decade it has been highly influenced by the heavy foreign investment in real estate industry .
For all these reasons , the cultural landscape of the Bay of Kotor region , and Prcanj in particular , is under the big threat of losing all its inherited features represented by the materiality and the structure of the landscape itself , as well as vanishing the collective memory of its traditional character and specificity . Today , many areas have been devastated by building residential buildings without any legal certificate , thus imposing high seismic hazard ; also , by interrupting the organical linkage with surrounding landscape ; even , by making life more complicated and dangerous ( neglecting the necessity of adequate access for personal cars , or not providing a livable neighbourhood ). All these problems make a real urban chaos in some upper areas of Prcanj like Tre Sorelle and Sarena Gomila .
After the 1979 earthquake , an intensive urbanisation started without any implemented strategical urban planning . Today , some areas in Prcanj which are important for their cultural landscape , like St . Anna Valley , are threatened by uncontrolled urbanisation , like the building of a big real estate settlement , and by imposing the complete destruction of the authentic cultural landscape . Now the urge for urban legislation of the entire UNESCO area of Kotor , as well as in Prcanj , is the top priority for Montenegro , and among the aims of this thesis is to point to urgent actions in urban legislation and integrated approach toward cultural landscape protection , as well as to raise public awareness about its tangible and intangible features .