Bosque Cuauhtémoc: revealing values and defining guidelines for the conservation of a historic garden in Morelia, Mexico

Abstract

This article is based on the workshop Valorization of Bosque Cuauhtémoc and Guidelines for its Conservation. Bosque Cuauhtémoc is a green space of expressive size located in the historic center of the Mexican city of Morelia, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Due to its historical, botanical and landscape attributes, the park was defined as an example of “integration of man with nature”, within the framework of “a historic garden”. The workshop was based on the Florence Charter (1981) and on contributions from specialists in historic gardens, a field visit made by Brazilian and Mexican participants during the workshop, and a study of iconographic and cartographic sources, as well as other historical records, previously collected and made available. This article is divided into five parts. It starts by introducing the object and methodology of the workshop, then describes the origins of the park, and its process of formation and transformation over time. It then uses the six categories of landscape structure, plant architecture, buildings, visuals, uses, and incongruities, to demonstrate the characteristics of this historic garden and analyze the current problems in these areas. This leads to a set of guidelines for the conservation of the Bosque Cuauhtémoc as a cultural asset. Finally, the text highlights the methodological contributions from this workshop for addressing historic gardens in similar contexts, including the institutional exchange between Mexico and Brazil in this field of study.