Forgotten Heritage. Military defences of the Risorgimento period in the Mantuan side of the Mincio river.

Our cities have a rich cultural heritage, capable of narrating the stories and memories of places and peoples, which form a very important part of the recognition of identity on a local and national scale. The case of Mantua, a UNESCO city with a historical heritage of immense value, is particularly interesting because its historical and cultural heritage covers a period of time that goes hand in hand with the evolution of mankind: from the first Etruscan traces to Roman, Medieval and Renaissance developments, it contains a hidden heritage, made up of unresolved presences of what is by definition the moment when Italy becomes a single nation. This heritage, dating back to the Risorgimento period (fought for the most part in the Po Valley and, thanks to its geographical conformation, in the valley of the Mincio from Peschiera to Mantua) is not nowadays at the same level of consideration as the city’s other historical testimonies. Starting from this awareness, the paper is divided into two parts: the first is historical, outlining the main passages of the Risorgimento and its cultural and social legacy, emphasising the concepts of memory, tradition and oblivion that still hover around this historical parenthesis, and identifying the artefacts that serve as testimony. In a second phase, these artefacts are analysed from a legal and conservation point of view, with a focus on the Fort of Fossamana, which becomes the starting point for a preliminary conservation project to include these forts in a system of historical and cultural enhancement on a local and territorial scale.