Landscape and Heritage in the Words of the European Landscape Convention

Looking at the European Landscape Convention (ELC, Florence 2000), this paper aims to highlight certain aspects of the relationship between landscape and European cultural heritage. Drawing on linguistics and discourse analysis, the paper provides an analysis of the ELC text's lexical and phrasal items, as well as of the 2012-2013 "Glossary" from the Council of Europe. The definitions of landscape and heritage are compared to those of other international conventions such as the 1972 Unesco "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage". The paper highlights research findings pointing to the landscape as "an important part of the quality of life for people everywhere: in urban areas and in the countryside. in degraded areas as well as in areas of high quality, in areas recognised as being of outstanding beauty as well as everyday areas" (ELC Preamble), landscape as a part of European heritage and identity, as well as the individual and social "perception" of the landscape as stated in the ELC.