Restaurare il Paesaggio storico. Fonti, Memoria e Identità come strumento di ri-significazione nei contesti in via di abbandono. Alcuni casi in Campania

The paper aims to deal with the issue of the historic landscape, intended as a relationship between built heritage and nature, with specific reference to contexts on the verge of be abandonment. The study deals with possible actions for preservation and restoration of the historic landscape, intended as potentials for informed transformation, which through “resignification” of their identity and functions, allow such contexts to find a role in contemporary life, without losing their historic values. In particular, the paper aims to demonstrate how historical research conducted on indirect sources (maps, pre-cadastral documents, bibliographies, archival records relating to construction and restoration sites of the built heritage etc.) and tested in the direct reading of the built heritage, serves as the most important instrument in interpreting the dynamics of landscape transformation, and in suggesting new strategies for preservation and transmission to the future. The study draws on experimental case studies in Campania, such as the Mulini Valley in Gragnano (Naples) and the village of Toppolo in Solofra (Avellino): historic landscapes of high identity values, representing significant examples of settlement types, construction techniques and life-ways, pertaining to very different contexts, now both subject to gradual processes of abandonment. Based on these cases, the paper explores how the iconographic sources can recount the transformative processes and thus become instruments for deciphering the multiple values and “re-meanings” of these landscapes, and suggesting possible strategies for preservation and enhancement.