MINING LEGACY OF DOURO COAL BASIN Remains of a system under process

Abstract

The recognition of the mining legacy of Douro Coal Basin raises issues regarding the paradigms of heritage recognition and of intervention on the present marks of an economic activity strictly linked to the territory, so transformed by it. In the territory transformed by the Carboniferous System of Douro (SCD) the current heritage context identifies only “fragments”, which don’t allow their understanding as an integrated part of a sociotechnical system. As an alternative, it is proposed the understanding of how the SCD was being territorialized and settling an “anthropogeographic landscape”. This paper identifies temporal and spatial correlations that supported SCD territorialisation. These correlations assumed distinct forms according to the surrounding context and determined SCD morphologies, attributing to them the identity inherent to a productive system that enhanced acculturation and allowing its perception as a system. The evaluation of heritage condition and future interventions should consider values and needs that result from the links between present and past. Under this assumption, a group of intervention principles for the transformation of the SCD territory are identified. The goal is to move closer to a prospective understanding of heritage, enabling an integrated and meaningful territory requalification.