Cultural-Ecclesiastical Heritage in the Urban Landscape: hints and strategies for a systemic enhancement

The contribution is framed in the reflections on the ecclesiastical heritage in the urban context – considered above all as a “cultural heritage” – and of its relationship with the historic city and its regeneration. The ‘ecclesial’ and ‘ecclesiastical’ heritage still constitutes an element of identity and cultural recognizability for local contexts, and constitutive of the urban landscape, especially in Europe and Italy. Nonetheless, it is often lacking in systemic knowledge and attention and, consequently, in strategic planning for its protection and enhancement, leading it to be exposed to frequent risks of decay and abandonment; such trend involves also the “living” heritage, which is exposed to the changing religious and urban instances and the need for transformation and innovation of its spaces. Starting from a theoretical framework of the main trends in the protection and enhancement of this specific heritage, the contribution proposes some reflections on the area of the Diocese of Milan, concerning the ecclesiastical and parish heritage. In particular, the consideration of the parish context, which by nature “insists” and “acts” on a defined territory, offers several hints about the interaction between cultural heritage, urban morphology, and strategic planning: key topics within the dynamics of transformation of the historic city. Supported by the reference framework and the analysis of the Milan case, a series of considerations will be conducted regarding the potential of the systemic enhancement of the heritage considered through tools and methods recently experimented, as well as its consideration in relation to the urban structure of the consolidated city.