Small Towns’ Heritage: Resilient Strategies and Projects for Their Regeneration. The Case Study of Tocco Da Casauria in the Abruzzo Region

The large number of studies concerning the small towns mainly focused on the recognition and conservation of their values, especially ranging from morphological and settlement arrangement to typological and construction features: they are indeed representative of a multilayered and widespread heritage which is relevant in the national framework for its quantity and quality. Unfortunately, the strategies and practices applied so far weren’t able to effectively counterbalance the dynamics of depopulation and socio-economic crisis, also connected to disaster events, which are typical of this particular heritage. However, the recent pandemic demonstrated the critical issues of high-density settlement models and that small towns can still represent an available resource: they can trigger regeneration processes whose suitability engages a reflection about the effective implementation of new housing and use models, also related to cultural and production activities. These considerations were reported in the projects of the “Integrated workshop for graduation thesis of the courses Building Reuse and Conservation - Materials and Techniques for Building Reuse”, that especially concerned the settlement models and the architectural heritage that characterize the threshold landscape of the piedmont areas of the Abruzzo region. The hypothesis of recovery of the small town named Tocco da Casauria and of its Caracciolo Castle is included into this framework of experimentation activities, with the aim of proposing the regeneration of the fortified settlement through strategies of cultural improvement and promotion of local resources.