THE VEGETATION AS A CONSTANT IN THE MEDITERRANEAN CULTURAL LANDSCAPE

Linked to the disciplines of Biology and Ecology, vegetation is a fundamental ingredient of the built cultural heritage. It contributes to the formation of spaces, enriching their aesthetic and environmental values, as well as guaranteeing the comfort of use, through an efficient performance of functions, mitigating the impact of solar reflection and regulating high temperatures and humidity levels. However, from the cultural point of view, it also manifests an incalculable value, since, by collaborating in the construction of spaces, it becomes the authentic builder of their image. The dialogue between the green and the built is a constant search since the origins of the civilizations that have made life in the Mediterranean. Various categories of its cultural heritage made up of ensembles, sites, historic urban landscapes, cultural landscapes and cultural routes owe part of their existence to vegetation. The object of this paper focuses on demonstrating the permanence of this symbiosis through time, starting from a historical-critical retrospective, with a view to pointing out, on the one hand, the importance of its conservation and restoration, when it has been compromised by environmental and anthropic physical degradation and, on the other, its valorization as an inherent part of the cultural environment, where it has coexisted with what has been built, in order to balance sustainability and development.