Planned Villages as Rural Heritage in the Function of Sustainable Development: Case Study of Gornji Vrhovci in Slavonia, Croatia

Although cultural values are the subject of an increasing number of officially adopted documents, at international as well as on European level, elaborations of planned villages’ values are rare. In 1990, the term cultural landscape was confirmed in several international texts as a concept related to the protection and heritage (World Heritage Convention, 1992; Recommendation on the Integrated Conservation of Cultural Landscapes Areas as Part of Landscape Policies, 1995). From the beginning of the 21st century, the concept is dispersed into several disciplines and the focus shifts to the side of natural values, visual values of the landscape, built structure, heritage values, elaborating the concept of the cultural landscape more widely and at the same time clarifying its components more in depth. The paper analyses the values of planned rural settlements in the context of the cultural landscape and the values of the rural heritage. The importance of planned rural heritage as a tourist attraction and potential destination is examined through a spatial multi-level research of the regional area on the example of the area of Western Slavonia, Croatia. Since the middle of the 18th century, in the area of Slavonia, there is the largest number of planned and regulated villages that have been integrated into the landscape, contributing to the spatial diversity and consequently the spatial identity. Therefore, the question arises whether their planned spatial structure can be recognized as a heritage and whether this part of heritage can be used in the function of rural tourism development. This paper explores the historical urban - architectural reconstruction of the village Gornji Vrhovci (1945-1948) after its damage during World War II, and reconstruction (1995-1998) after the damage during the Homeland War. Since the architects led both reconstructions of the village, the paper explores whether the recognizable spatial structure of the village can serve as a contribution to the development of a model for the development of rural tourism. The paper concludes that, despite the need for the development of rural tourism in Croatia, the identity of spatial structures of the village are neglected by the development plans both in the sense of heritage and resource sustainable development.