Os jardins históricos: da dimensão patrimonial ao seu potencial turístico

The cultural and landscape heritage linked to the historic gardens set up a strategic tourist resource of the territories and, not rare times, incorporates elements of identity and image of them, constituting therefore, fundamental cultural and historical documents in the preservation and strengthening of a society cultural memory and collective identity, as well as tourist attractions in themselves and in their own right. The methodology was based on a depth review of the scientific literature and the main international guiding and normative documents, in order to contextualize the patrimonial dimension of the historic gardens and clarify its current tourist and recreational dimension. As main conclusions this paper refers the relevance of the garden tourism in countries such as France and the United Kingdom, as well as the potential of this niche to the tourist activity in Portugal.