Tutela archeologica e processi di trasformazione urbana nella ricostruzione dopo il sisma del 1908. L’attività di Paolo Orsi a Reggio Calabria (1909-1924)

Processes of the reconstruction of Reggio Calabria after the 1908 earthquake have been widely studied in recent historiography, considering both policies and method of reconstruction and the relationship between the new city and the surviving memories of the past. Recent studies have also underlined the relationship that developed, soon after the earthquake, between reconstruction and archaeological investigations. Paradoxically, and as happens in many similar cases, the dramatic circumstance became an occasion to define the topography of the Greek and Roman city, by the significant amount of archaeological findings uncovered during the excavations. On the contrary, the relationship between protection of archaeological findings and urban transformations, which the essay intends to analyze through the extensive work of Paolo Orsi, was more complex and quite often unsuccessful, as the amount of destruction and the need to quickly rebuild the city, did not allow for the conservation of many important fragments of ancient historical buildings.