Portugal. Landscape of the Pico Island Vineyard culture in the Azores island

Date of Inscription: 2004
Criteria: (iii)(v)
Property : 190.2000 ha
Buffer zone: 2445.2000 ha
Azores
N38 30 48.4 W28 32 28.2
Ref: 1117rev  

Brief Description
The 987-ha site on the volcanic island of Pico, the second largest in the Azores archipelago, consists of a remarkable pattern of spaced-out, long linear walls running inland from, and parallel to, the rocky shore. The walls were built to protect the thousands of small, contiguous, rectangular plots (currais) from wind and seawater. Evidence of this viniculture, whose origins date back to the 15th century, is manifest in the extraordinary assembly of the fields, in houses and early 19th-century manor houses, in wine-cellars, churches and ports. The extraordinarily beautiful man-made landscape of the site is the best remaining area of a once much more widespread practice.
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1117

Thanks to Joana!