L’Horta of Valencia is a cultural landscape - a human creation - the result and witness of the agricultural activity of the people of Valencia over the last thousand years.
The Mediterranean plains, like l’Horta of Valencia, were home to fertile irrigated agriculture until the middle of the 20th century, a landscape that fascinated the northern European travellers who visited it for centuries.
Mediterranean irrigated areas (hortes/huertas) are cultural landscapes - human creations - the result and witness of centuries of agricultural activity.
However, the uncontrolled urban growth of Mediterranean cities over the last few decades has led to the progressive reduction of agricultural spaces and the degradation of the remaining horticultural landscapes.
Despite the institutional protection through the 2018 Territorial Action Plan (Pla d’Actuació Territorial or PAT), the future of what is left of Valencia's Horta is very uncertain in the face of urban speculation and the lack of generational change among the peasants.
With the Chair “L’Horta: territori metropolità”, we want to contribute, on the one hand, to the task of raising awareness among the urban population of the cultural, identity, environmental and economic value of horticultural landscapes and, on the other, to contribute to the recovery of a unique and millenary cultural landscape such as that of l'Horta of Valencia.