Symbolic Landscape

Definition

A symbolic landscape refers to landscapes that have significant meaning beyond what can be seen with the naked eye due to cultural associations or symbols attached to them.

Analogy

Imagine walking into your grandmother's kitchen. To an outsider it may just look like any other kitchen but for you it’s filled with memories - Sunday dinners, baking cookies during holidays etc., making it symbolic. Similarly symbolic landscapes are places imbued with additional meaning because of cultural significance.

Related terms

Cultural Landscape: The visible imprint of human activity on a landscape including buildings, crops, roads etc.

Sequent Occupance: The notion that successive societies leave their cultural imprints on a place each contributing to the cumulative cultural landscape.

Sense of Place: The emotional attachment people have towards certain places due their experiences or relationships associated with those places.