Dziwne losy dominant krajobrazowych

Dominant, as its encyclopedic definition says, is the major motive, fundamental characteristic, exceptional element or an element which outnumbers others in a given set. Higher, huger, brighter or more original objects exist in all types of landscapes from primal ones to cultural ones. The importance of a dominant is given to them in the perception process by the person viewing. The dominant - the object effect, which on purpose is to dominate the others and be a carrier of a substance worth stressing and remembering has been applied since the beginning of architecture history. One of such functions is marking the centre of a town or other settlement unit. That is why, looking on a panorama of a city we are looking for towers, and when we find them, we know where the centre lies, and sometimes we also know what city it is. For dominants stand to the function of a specific city logo, like for example the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Dominants regional effect can be noticed in a cultural landscape which most often evidence religious separation of defined regions. In the perception process we simultaneously recognize the object or phenomena (e.g. a dominant) and transform the gained information in a way conditioned by capability of our previous knowledge and the state of feelings and the actual situation: here and now. Perception effect can be, therefore, much varied. That is why it does not depend on creators but most of all on receivers to accept the dominant role of a specific object and a symbolic sense of consignment of which carrier it is to be. Dominant dependence on perception allows for successful, but sometimes not so successful dominants, sometimes strange, sometimes perfidious transformations, attempts to falsify symbols e.t.c. are possible. Strange fortunes of dominants in Siebenbürgen, Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Hundertwasser Haus in Vienna and towers of the World Trade Centre in New York are presented in the text.