Di pietre e d’acqua. La conservazione del patrimonio proto-industriale nel paesaggio culturale della Costiera Amalfitana

Abstract

The Amalfi Coast represents a unicum in which the complexity is due to the coexistence of natural singularities and multiple traces resulting from the adaptation made by man to the harsh orography and to the scarcity of resources. Included in the World Heritage List in 1997, the area of the UNESCO perimeter is placed at the centre of the programmatic guidelines of the Management Plan which articulates the objectives around the themes of knowledge, protection, conservation, enhancement, and communication of (and for) coastal cultural heritage. Given these premises, the contribution aims to present a critical balance between the prospects for intervention and the operations concretely defined for the conservation of the cultural landscape of the Amalfi Coast, paying attention to the fate of the proto-industrial heritage (paper mills, ironworks, mills, and hydraulic works), largely abandoned and which requires targeted strategies for the recognition of specificities and the mitigation of intrinsic vulnerabilities.

The territorial organization of the Amalfi Coast: nature and man's intervention

“…Recent inventory campaigns have significantly expanded the field, highlighting that the use of caves was not only for worship purposes, but involved all aspects of daily life, in which the housing function merged with the productive and zootechnical one, often gathered in very small spaces. The destination of the rock heritage for civilian uses highlights a new aspect of the Coast, already observed in other Italian areas [4], namely that the local populations of peasants, breeders and shepherds also exploited the caves for the needs of daily life [20].…”

“…The former -Conca dei Marini, Furore, Praiano and Positano -are located high up, above rocky walls that plunge into the sea. Instead, Amalfi and those on the eastern side -Atrani, Maiori, Minori, Cetara -up to Vietri, arrange themselves at the mouth of streams, overlooking the beach and occupying the same sides of the valley in which the waters flow [21]. Thus sets of valley floors are configured, crossed by a stream, today covered becoming the main road, with the buildings arranged on the lateral slopes, reachable by stairways, sometimes with a frightening inclination and dark underpasses.…”

“…The original center is located on the slopes that flank the central flat sector, crossed by the torrent covered in the nineteenth century, on which the ancient pedestrian streets coming from the small suburbs converge which, due to the elevated position and the rugged orography, retain much of their plant. On the downstream area, parallel to the beach runs the state road that formed the route for subsequent settlements, favoring, especially after the 1954 flood, a predominantly speculative building [21]. Cetara winds sinuously into the gorge defined by the stream, covered in the urban stretch, which flows into the beach, dominated to the east by the imposing Angevin tower, increased in the viceregal age.…”

“…The buildings were arranged along the edges of the roadtoday made suitable for vehicles -which, following the slope, completely crosses the municipal territory from east to west, welcoming from the mountain and valley tiring stairways and touching the three parishes around which they settled in the Middle Ages the urban centers, reaching the border with Furore. About halfway there is the only open space, from which the connection with the larger nucleus started, extended on the promontory of the "Vreca, from where it branched off towards Capo di Conca, with the viceregal tower, and towards the Marina [21].…”

“…A similar organization is found in Vettica Maggiore, located up to the limit of the eminent coastal cliffs. The village, at the center of which is the church of S. Gennaro, is entirely penetrated by the state road [21].…”