The role of architectural heritage in the National Strategy for Inner Areas: evidence from the project areas

In Italy, cultural heritage's importance for territorial development doesn't seem to find reflection in the public funding program with the consequent rise of several issues. These issues become even more relevant in marginal territorial contexts, where it is crucial to support public spending orientation appropriately. To this aim, a comprehensive knowledge frame of the public sphere's intervention approach to architectural heritage is a fundamental precondition. Based on these premises, the paper aims to define a geo-referenced database of architectural heritage interventions in the frame of the main national policy for marginal territories: the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI). After introducing the "inner areas" issue, the paper preliminarily investigates the role assigned to architectural heritage in the SNAI's first cycle. This investigation highlights the emerging themes that guide the construction and interpretation of the geo-referred database, which provides a reference to identify specific criticalities or "virtuous" realities and can represent a knowledge basis to assess funded interventions' possible contribution to local development.