Dziedzictwo opuszczone na przykładzie cmentarzy żydowskich województwa śląskiego. Uwarunkowania i zagrożenia naturalne

Abstract

The content of the article focuses on the twofold relationship of nature and the products of culture – that is Jewish cemeteries. The main body of this work constitutes the results of the inventory research carried out by the author within 49 cemeteries in Silesian voivodeship from July to September of 2015. Joining field observations with cameral analyses, including literature analyses, allowed for the visualization of the correspondence which exists between religious rigidities (more broadly, cultural rigidities) and the location of Jewish cemeteries in the geographic space, which was included in the first part of the work. Its second, equivalent link comprises the distinguishment and discussion of the factors and the natural processes that determine the transformation taking place within the Jewish cemeteries that, together with the deliberate devastation, lead to their disappearance in the landscape. The last part concerns the problems of the protection of sacred buildings and is also an introduction to the discussion, which, in the opinion of the author, should be taken in order to preserve the cultural heritage, which, over the last few decades, has been subject to dynamic changes of predominantly destructive nature.