Parks and gardens in spa towns. Therapeutic landscape interpretation notes

EasyChair Preprint 1982

Abstract

Nature, landscape, park, walk ...... are concepts associated with the practice of thermalism from Antiquity to the present day. The parks act as green lungs of the essential spas for the effectiveness of the "water cure". The influence of the painting on the appreciation of nature and its leading role in the compositions, the evolution of the models of the English garden (landscape) in front of the French garden together with the appearance of the first spa cities will lead to a growing interest in the design of these new urban spaces The appearance in 1779 of the book Theory of Garden Art, by Christian Cay Lorenz Hirschfeld (1742–1792), with special programs for the design of gardens in spas will become the manual used by the most prestigious landscapers of the moment (Lenné, Siesmayer, Skalmik) to project the large urban parks that will configure the main European spa cities, a feature that distinguishes them from the growth model of other cities.

Spanish panorama: The first gardens and parks in Spanish spas will be set up around the towns of Trillo, Solán de Cabras, Fortuna, La Isabela. Subsequently, the parks will be created in Alhama de Aragón, Panticosa, Alceda-Ontaneda, Cardó, Fortuna, etc. which are mostly preserved as a singular element of the spa. The present study presents some known authors of the design of Spanish parks and spas so far ignored. The article also introduces the concept of therapeutic landscapes defined as places capable of achieving physical, mental and spiritual healing. This conception of the landscape is fostering a debate that has reached beyond the disciplinary limits of geography or medicine and in which it is intended to achieve for the design of healing spaces, a synthesis of nature architecture, health and culture.

Keyphrases: Pintura, paisaje, parques, sociabilidad, termalismo

@booklet{EasyChair:1982,
  author    = {Josep Sánchez Ferré},
  title     = {Parks and gardens in spa towns. Therapeutic landscape interpretation notes},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint 1982},
  year      = {EasyChair, 2019}}