Paper short abstract:

Sintra is a site near Lisbon, classified by UNESCO as Cultural Landscape. How can World Heritage site, with an enchanted aura praised by many religions, that use it profusely for their rituals, still protect its ecosystems? How do we balance religious freedom and the protection of the ecosystems?

Paper long abstract:

Sintra, a site near Lisbon, has been known as the splendorous Summer residence of kings and nobility since the Middle Ages. It was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, in a specific category—Cultural Landscape-- exactly because it joins monumental heritage with a breath-taking landscape. Placed in front of the Roca Cape, the western most point in Europe, the mountain of the Moon is also known for its centuries-long religious uses. Sintra is conceived as a magic and “sacred place”, especially by groups and individuals aligning with a world view based on what can be named, after Fuller (2017), a secular spirituality. We will combine this approach with Casanova’s (2009) concepts of secular and religious, Eliade’s (1959) notion of the sui generis nature of the sacred, and Tweed’s (2011) framework of religious space as both generated and generative. The various uses by the multiple religious groups show how the notion of different heritage regimes (Bendix et al 2012) intersect and conflict with a simultaneous variety of notions of sacredness that roam the mountain of the Moon, considered as an enchanted space and most suitable for religious offerings. Religious groups defend the right to use such spaces. Still, many of such religious offerings pollute the water falls, the lagoons… How can a site classified as cultural landscape, with an enchanted aura praised by many religions, that use it profusely for their rituals, still protect its ecosystems? How do we balance religious freedom and the protection of the ecosystems?