Historic Cultural Landscapes Across Political Borders Connecting Communities and Cultures - case of Prespa Lake

This report shows the research undertaken by the 39th PhD cycle Cultural Heritage Landscape Group, in the framework of the Joint International PhD Program IDAUP between POLIS University and University of Ferrara. The Cross-Border Region of the Prespa Lakes and Pustec Municipality, the case study of this research, was framed as the intersection of infrastructural, environmental, cultural and habitation landscapes. Located in the southeast of Albania, Pustec Municipality borders with Greece and North Macedonia, all of three countries sharing the Prespa Lakes. The environmental richness and the wider multidimensional ecological importance of the zone led jointly the three countries to establish the Prespa Transboundary Park in 2000. Very rich also in terms of cultural heritage, this site testimonies the continuous presence of human settlements starting from the Neolithic Age and continuing today. Byzantine hermitages and examples of stone masonry vernacular architecture, are identifying cultural heritage elements of the region. Despite the richness, multiple territorial, social, and environmental problems have been identified in the site. They have led to isolation, shrinking, migration, and emigration of the local population. In response to these problems, cultural heritage was proposed as one of the four fields of inquiry of the PhD Workshop and was followed by this PhD research group. Under a shared vision of Pustec as capable of valorising the potentials and mitigating the problems, the cultural heritage landscape PhD group envisioned to enhance the cultural heritage in its broadest sense. It explored the interrelation of historic built environment with the geomorphology of the site, as potential drivers for sustainable development. Adopting a holistic multi-scale approach, the PhD research group proposed reintegration of the dispersed cultural heritage assets into a coherent landscape system as key to limit depopulation, restore continuity and enhance territorial identity of the region and particularly of Pustec Municipality.