Between the Sacrum and Profanum. Geographical Determinants of Development of the Sacral Landscape and Religious Tourism Space in Areas of High Cultural and Transformations (Western Pomerania, NW Poland)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the role of geographic factors (elements of the natural, social and geopolitical environment) in shaping the broadly construed sacral landscape, with particular emphasis on its impact on the development of religious tourism space. The individual determinant of the development of the sacral landscape of the region is its individual and symbolic perception of sacrum but its final form and spatial and materialistic organization are influenced by numerous factors of non-religious nature (profanum). Geological considerations, relief, vegetation, and even climatic and weather phenomena largely determine the image of the cultural landscape and delimit its extent. The role of individual features is very difficult to estimate. The sacral landscape, or its materialistic form of a religious landscape, enjoys a great interest in tourism activity, not only in the context of pilgrimage and religious tourism, but also as widely understood cultural tourism. In such context of construal of the cultural landscape development, the selection of Western Pomerania region (NW Poland) seems justified, as an example of the specific area that links sacrum and profanum. This region, with its rich and complicated history, has repeatedly experienced diametric changes of a spatial, social, cultural and religious nature. Due to the geographical location and the relief formed during the last glaciation, also a characteristic natural landscape has developed here, which significantly influenced the specificity of the Pomeranian community.