The transhumance architecture: handing down seismic knowledge while migrating

The topic of transhumance is well known, as far as the historical and anthropological aspects are concerned, as it is proven by the richness of the relevant literature; yet it still presents wide margins of un-certainty in the more specific aspects concerning building techniques and functional installations, construction materials and adopted procedures, local masonry peculiarities and technological characteristics, as well as the traditional maintenance criteria, now almost completely abandoned. The research program and the field inves-tigations here presented provide valuable information on the awareness of builders in the past of the necessity for buildings to withstand seismic actions. Solutions were suggested by experience acquired in the repeated risk exposure. Collecting local construction techniques and maintenance procedures is the basis for defining "land archives", capable of suggesting new knowledge horizons and also of providing methodological guid-ance on intervention methods for the conservation and enhancement of the historical building stock.