Embedding Apulian landscapes of nomadism into rural modernisation schemes: instant townscapes and heritage features

This paper discusses the "integral reclamation" that took place in the Apulian Tableland in Italy from 1932 to 1941 under the fascist regime and its impact. The focus is on settlements constructed as part of subsequent reclamation schemes, which disrupted a long-standing transhumance-based economy. By examining a range of sources, mostly predating the fascist "integral reclamation" and others originating under the regime, and by taking a broader historical perspective, this paper identifies the significance of rural settlement as an enduring issue in the Apulian Tableland. Unlike the well-studied case of the Pontine Plain, the newly built settlements in Apulia bear witness to the conflicting modernisation policies that coexisted under the fascist regime and to the experiments made to integrate planning and architecture. As noted by engineer and urban planner Cesare Albertini, roads emerged as new urban-rural relationships, but also as significant landscape features. In Apulia, where many new roads replaced old sheep tracks, this condition took on a special significance: new rural settlements were visible from the road or railway. These settlements were designed to be compact, with a roadside square, combining "high modernism" with local traditional building types to achieve a unified visual whole that, at times, bordered on picturesque composition. The concept of "instant townscape" is proposed to describe the spatial and architectural features of rural new towns that architects utilized to construct new identities.