The urban landscape of Pombal - geographic dynamic, symbolic representations and ideological appropriations

Abstract

Landscapes, a synthesis between traditional heritage and innovative elements, are important focus of cultural geography analysis. Because those landscapes reflect power relations, symbolic features such as some buildings, toponymy, the statuary and other spatial elements of celebration construct contested, disputed and not always consensual landscapes. Although it is a city of low density and sparse polarization, Pombal presents a complex hybrid, not always well articulated urban landscape showing local and non local narrative geographic symbols. That low density urban landscape represents heterogeneous elements such as the close rural environment, the historic cycles of migration, the industrialization dynamics and the most recent and tenuous postmodern drift. In spite of this diversity, Pombal is mainly a space of celebration and nostalgia for the past.