Valorizzazione, Turismo e Partecipazione sociale. Sviluppo di soluzioni integrate alternative per siti storici meno promossi

Responsabili di progetto

Laura Genovese, Haiming Yan

Accordo

CINA - CACH - Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage

Bando

CNR/CACH 2016-2018

Dipartimento

Scienze umane e sociali, patrimonio culturale

Area tematica

Scienze umane e sociali, patrimonio culturale

Stato del progetto

Nuovo

Proposta di ricerca

Italy and China, although they are very different in geographical scale, have the bigger number of World Heritage sites included in the UNESCO List. Due to the great number of cultural and historical sites, that both countries have, it is very difficult to evaluate a comprehensive strategy to enhance them all. Thus, apart from the most famous and frequented realities there is a multitude of lesser-known sites, spread all over the territory, very often characterized by extraordinary historical as well as identity values, but suffering from poor local development, the lack of an adequate enhancement and a limited tourist flow. Even some newly designated World Heritage sites, in spite of their booming reputation, are still inaccessible or unattractive to visitors. This is mostly due to the fragmentation and short sighted policies of administrative and management Authorities, mainly interested in partial interventions and the sites' turistification - following the short term economic advantages of tourism, instead of integrated enhancement policies at a territorial scale -- than in the lack of real local potentialities . Therefore, a multilevel evaluation and intervention approach is needed in order to promote more incisive and long-lasting results.
In this perspective, the project proposes a multidisciplinary team of research in order to evaluate alternative integrated solutions for enhancing less promoted historic sites, on the basis of a comparative research between Italy and China. In particular, the comparison between Luoyang's two granaries on the Grand Canal (Henan, China), and the Etruscan Necropolis of Sovana will be the occasion to evaluate how positive experiences could be mutually beneficial for each country. In fact, the huge Etruscan Necropolis represents a good case of territorial integration since it is part of a big archaeological park including a vast territory under the administrative jurisdiction of the municipalities of Sovana, Sorano and Vitozza (S. Quirico). The park was created in 1998 aiming at preserving, managing and enhancing a large variety of heritage (Etruscan necropolis, medieval villages, castles, natural landscape, etc.) in this important corner of southern Tuscany. Thanks to the "splendid isolation" of this territory, far from main roads, the Necropolis of Sovana has been well preserved, but it is still little known and suffers of a very limited tourist flow.
In 2010-2012 the ICVBC has coordinated the project "TeCon@BC: Technologies for the conservation and valorisation of cultural heritage" financed by Tuscany Region, which had identified in the Etruscan necropolis of Sovana it's case study. A multidisciplinary approach of enhancement was then promoted, based on three distinct territorial scales of intervention. 1) In order to better the fruition of a restricted portion of the Necropolis a multimedia digital tool was developed (App "Necropoli etrusca di Sovana")based on a in depth knowledge of the site and a philological interpretation of its tangible and intangible values, that have been enhanced due to an innovative communication strategy supported by digital technology. 2) An interactive map was elaborated, with data offered by the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici of Tuscany, for dissemination purposes and the creation of tourist itineraries. 3) To promote the entire territory of Sovana, a plan was created on the basis of the application of a participative method of analysis, the PlaceMaker - supported by the development of an innovative software - which identifies cultural resources and the contemporary identity of places. Due to lack of additional funding from Tuscany Region, some of these products are still waiting to be implemented or disseminated to the large public (as the PlaceMaker plan for a broader territorial enhancement and the concrete realization of tourist itineraries). Nonetheless, the results obtained indicate a new possible way to undertake in order to overcome the logistic difficulties of field trips in similar archaeological sites (accessibility, security, understanding) and to develop a sustainable enhancement on a broader scale. In that sense, the project's aim is twofold i) to evaluate how to improve this approach making it more flexible on the basis of the comparative research and experimentation in Chinese case studies; ii) to better the enhancement of the Necropolis promoting synergies in a broader territorial context in order to promote an overall reconstruction of the Etruscan world, which still attends to be unveiled to the large public.
In this perspective, the comparison with China is very challenging for the particular status of the cases chosen. The two granaries of Luoyang, Hanjia and Huiluo granary, located in Henan province, have been recently musealized and inscribed into the World Heritage list (in 2014). They are special witness to the history of the Grand Canal of China and have been under the highest level of conservation in the Chinese cultural heritage system. In spite of the rapidly increasing reputation and recognized significance, however, the distance between them and the city's core points of tourist interests, as well as the poor conditions of accessibility and surrounding environment, have made them a marginal and less popular site. Being excavated until 2012, some portion of the archaeological relics have been protected on the original site, through a display shed built, and open to the public, but still more it needs to be done to interpret both sites and to make them communicative and attractive. Therefore, the core mission of the comparative project is twofold, on one hand, to explore a better method of presentation also developing digital tools for bettering the fruition. On the other, to develop a broader plan for the systematic presentation of both the site and the city's other major heritage sites, creating a set of city-level tourist routes useful for visitors.

Obiettivi della ricerca

The major research themes and aims of the proposal will regard a comparative research relative to: 1) the process of archaeological interpretation, communication and promotion in order to exchange positive experiences and practices regarding the identification of appropriate ICT tools to support cultural dissemination and tourist fruition; 2) the recognition of ways for social participation in planning the enhancement of historical sites, in order to ensure more sustainable and long-lasting development; 3) the evaluation of integrated solutions to enhance cultural sites within a broader territorial scale, in order to suggest best practices, promote synergies and develop specific dissemination tools.

Ultimo aggiornamento: 30/06/2024