Spatiotemporal and diachronic vision for the a small town

The history of a place is often reduced to a few dates and traced back to a few personalities. When great events take advantage over minor ones, the history of a building or a place is also reduced as it was a set of passages rather than a continuous succession of independent events, as indeed it is. If we take the example of a place subject to less historical studies, we often hear two stories about it. The first account, which leads to a sclerotic literature and a tenacious tradition. The second story, which stand on the material consistency of the architecture but sometimes spurious, uncritical, and often objectively inconclusive. Anyway, as the first story seems to progressively leave reality and it raises to the level of ideal interpretation of some notable facts, the other one is potentially opened to a variety of interpretative narratives, reserving specific attention even to the slightest and fragmentary traces of the past. The proposed case study deals with this second kind of investigation. In the paper an urban remark is proposed, and a modern restoration reconsidered. The study has moved along two parallel and complementary directions: archival research and buildings survey. From the first, unpublished information on architecture construction was obtained; the second allowed to recognize and distinguish portions of masonry, including medieval ones. This has led to a new proposal to date some buildings and to order the urban history of a small town. The medieval church and castle, the previous pre-modern village and their evolution are all rediscussed. As a result, the study claims the opportunity to join historical research and built archaeology to reach a wider perspective on urban history. A modern restoration project (1925ca-1937) was also re-read to underline how such a kind of works may contribute to preserve or to obliterate a substantial part of the past. The current town plan adopts the image achieved by this project as a prevailing and characterizing feature of the ancient part of this small town. Its guidelines aim to restore this historical layer above all; thus, the past comes out selected. On the other side, the real estate market pushes for the regeneration of the existing buildings for new purposes. Difficulties arise that require to question which strategies are suitable to preserve the multi-layered dimension of the built environment. A point of view on the town masterplan and the stakeholders to be involved in the future goals is thus finally proposed.