Abstract

The contemporary heritage scope has reached a territorial dimension which the emphasis on cultural landscapes reveals, recognized mainly by the UNESCO (1992). Cultural heritage ceased to be uniquely translated by isolated events, monuments or historic/urban sets and gained space, scale and complexity. This complexity is of conceptual and instrumental natures, which is presented through the design of a relationship rhizome and the theoretical framework related to landscape and cultural landscape. The Landscape of Pico Island Vineyard Culture, Azores, Portugal, as a case study, represents the opportunity to analyse the instrumental value of cultural landscapes and the landscape/heritage binomial which, in the Portuguese context, is an unexplored path towards the development of territorial public strategies. Cultural landscapes can be an operative concept which infers spatial planning consequences.