Tracing the history of the viticulture landscape in Svätý Jur and the roots of the IALE history

Tracing the history of the viticulture landscape in Svätý Jur and the roots of the IALE history

The excursion starts in the ancient town of Svätý Jur at the foot of the Little Carpathians Mts., situated in the close neighbourhood of Bratislava. Its historical core has been declared a town monument reserve. The beginnings of the settlement date back to prehistoric times. the character of the town was marked by more than 700 years of wine-growing tradition, which was projected into the landscape in the form of unique terraced vineyards and wine-growing architecture. During the excursion, we will visit the Small Carpathian Museum, see the archaeological site of the Great Moravian Fortress, get informed about the results of archaeobotanical research, and walk through the history of viticulture and winemaking from its beginnings to the present day. We will finish our tour with a visit to an organic vineyard farm and enjoy tasting the local wine varieties.

The idea of setting up the International Association for Landscape Ecology was first raised among Slovak landscape ecologists led by prof. Milan Ružička in the 1960s of the last century. At the initiative of Dutch scientists, the establishment of IALE took place during the 6th International Symposium “On the Problems of Ecological Landscape Research”, held in Piešt’any on 25-30 October 1982, as a recognition of the contribution of landscape ecology in the former Czechoslovakia to international cooperation. Our next steps will therefore be directed to the world-famous spa town of Piešt’any, where we will be accompanied in the footsteps of the beginnings of IALE by one of the creators of the idea of founding the association, prof. László Miklós.