Mistretta “Sella Dei Nebrodi”. Interpretation and Conservation of the Historic Town for Triggering and Supporting Cultural Tourism

The awareness of the challenges related to depopulation of ‘inner areas’ in Italy gave the input for the development of the present research study, which refers to an emblematic case study in the Sicily region: the historic town of Mistretta, also called “Sella dei Nebrodi”. Starting from the perspective of heritage conservation, a multidisciplinary and multiscale analysis was developed, to create a solid knowledge basis for the development of restoration and valorisation strategies having in mind two main objectives: to increase the awareness, care and fruition by the local community, and to include the historic town in the territory's cultural tourism networks, by introducing new functions and services for both inhabitants and tourists, taking as basic principles the need to preserve the integrity of the site by respecting its limit of physiological transformability. This paper gathers the first research results with regard, in particular, to the interpretation and understanding of the values that this architectural and urban heritage embodies; and the strategies of conservation and reuse, with new functions conceived to serve both the local community and cultural tourism flows in the area.