This paper is a theoretical reflection aiming to understand
how specific assets of intangible heritage are affected
by contemporary discourse. This approach focuses on
understanding the protection, preservation and reenactment of the intangible heritage found in Spanish
rural landscapes. By an analysis of the global, national
and regional laws, the paper addresses the need to
approach the intangible, understanding the peculiarities
of places that shape the scenery. The places and ‘Assets
of Cultural Interest’ analysed in this paper are defined
as geographic areas associated with a historic event,
activity, or people, which exhibit cultural and aesthetic
values. Following this definition, these landscapes are
experiential cultural spaces, involving a complex set of
elements, fixed, semi-fixed and unfixed. The way in which
these traditions are viewed and experienced by locals and
foreigners plays a central role in many intangible heritage
studies, as does the way in which it reflects integrity,
authenticity, attachment and a sense of identity, and how
it anchors collective memory. It is the intention of this paper
to emphasise the need to transfer the phenomenon of
intangible heritage from the realm of a lived experience
to the world of living places. In doing so some questions
arise: Is the intangible cultural heritage contained in
rural landscapes authentic? Is it simply the materiality,
the past act or the past cultural process, or is it the way
the intangible cultural heritage has been managed until
today? Are we applying critical considerations to inner and
outer perceptions, appropriations and transmigrations
when managing cultural heritage