Between docks and grains: The port landscape as an identity component of the Rosario Metropolitan Area

Abstract

This article critically analyses the transformation of the harbour landscape of the Metropolitan Area of Rosario (AMR) since its conformation, in the mid-nineteenth century, to the present, and inquires into the role of the harbour infrastructures as a key-component for the territory changes. The interpretation of its transformation allows us to identify the role of its elements as main elements of the region identity, in order to understand the dynamics between the urban fabric and water, in relation to the practices of the different actors involved in each historical period. It thus contributes to deepen the knowledge of the metropolitan harbour landscape from a patrimonial perspective of the territory, in order to be able to overcome conflicts and contradictions between past and future, between the local and the global, achieving greater integration between the various components that constitutes the environment. It’s emphasized that, among the resources present in the territorial area, heritage is an unusual and non-renewable resource, which is why its valorization is decisive for its permanence.