History
Research Center for Mediterranean Landscapes

The Center for Mediterranean Landscapes in Dubrovnik developed from the Center for Historic Gardens and Landscape Development, which was founded as part of the then Department of Ornamental Plants and Landscape Architecture by decision of the Council of the Faculty of Agriculture on February 28, 1982. Considering the old and rich garden architectural heritage of the Dubrovnik area, it was decided to organize the Center in Dubrovnik, with its headquarters in the building of the Interuniversity Center for Postgraduate Studies. The initiators of the establishment of the Center were the head of the Department at the time, prof.  Vinko Jurčić, PhD and Bruno Šišić, PhD. The Center and its rich fund of documentation were completely destroyed during the war at the end of 1991. Its activity was renewed after a five-year hiatus as the Cabinet for Historic Gardens and Landscape Development. At the beginning of 2001, the original name "Center for Historical Gardens and Landscape Development" was returned, and since 2019 it has been operating under its current name.

During its operation, the Center carried out the procedures of recording, inventorying and registering the historical garden heritage with description and graphic, pictorial and archival documentation. It was especially engaged in scientific research of the historical garden zone Pile - Kono - Ploče, where more than a hundred garden and similar open spaces of different sizes, purposes and ages (mostly related to the Pile - Boninovo region) were recorded, identified, described and evaluated. In 1990, the Center led the scientific project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Croatia "Research of the historical garden zone Pile - Kono in Dubrovnik" (project registered under no. 4-99-165).

Representatives of the Center participated in a large number of symposia and exhibitions, and they themselves organized professional symposia on the historical heritage of garden art in Dubrovnik (1983) and in Varaždin (1986).

Since 2019, the Center has been reactivated through the activities of the Department of Ornamental Plants, Landscape Architecture and Garden Art, and its current activity is related to landscape and landscape conservation studies related to Mediterranean areas.

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