Preservation and sustainable development of a medieval fortified architecture The Castle of Novara in Italy

The Castle of Novara, a fortified system built over Roman and Middle Age buildings in a corner of the walls of the city, has acquired different values and meanings over time. The studies and researches by the authors according to a multidisciplinary approach (bibliographical and archive researches, geometrical and stratigraphic surveys, material characterisation, dating), highlight the complexity of this place. In the XIXth century the transformation of the castle in a prison and the strategies of expansion of the city determined a period of abandonment. In 1973, after the relocation of the prison in a new building, a process began to reuse the castle as a “museum”, which was open in 2016. From a place of “exclusion” it has become a place of “inclusion”, where nowadays a plurality of permanent and temporary uses merge inside the historic buildings. These transformations changed (and are changing) the relation between the castle and the city. A new balance must be find. The preservation and enhancement of the castle could be the main strategy to be followed to insure a sustainable development of the city of Novara from different points of view.