From Conservation to Revitalization. Ambiguous and Critical Conditions in the Heritage Conservation Experiences of Erice

The plans and the evolutionary trends of policies and practices implemented in Erice old town, in the south of Italy, in the western part of Sicily, can be considered a case study of total conservation as highly representative of Italian urban planning of the last 60 years. This paper aims to deal with the actual problems and the perspective of sustainable development of the historical centre of Erice, by adopting the approach of urban and territorial regeneration. This paper also highlights the historical and cultural context in which the Gubbio Charter (issued in 1960) is affirmed; i.e. the most appropriate approaches to historical urban centres; what we can learn from Erice’s integral conservation experience thanks to and/or without the direct influence of plans and other updated kinds of policy; some reflections regarding the rationale of differentiation in the urban/territorial functions and the actual asset and town management issues. In the final part of the paper, the authors propose a scenario in which the future of historical centres will no longer be based only on the quality of the safeguarding methods of restoration and recovery, nor on the ability of the architects/experts involved. The evidence of Erice’s recovery process, intended as an example of the protection and restoration models applied in Italy and in the foreign school of architectural restoration, shows that the social, economic, environmental and cultural aspects of the regeneration of the historical centres are intertwined and depend on the developmental conditions of the entire city. The experience of the complete recovery of the historical centre of Erice, where the restoration and accessibility of the buildings and the historical urban fabric was perfectly successful, did not, however, resolve the trend towards abandonment. The latest experiments to enhance the historical centre in a completely fresh and creative way, with the improvement of the accessibility system, could form the basis of a new urban and territorial role for the ancient part of the city. Without an integrated approach, it will be very difficult to regenerate historical centres; for this reason, it is indispensable to leverage on the interconnections between cultural built heritage and the entire urban context