ACCEPTED ON ANNALS OF GEOPHYSICS, 63, 2020; ‟ Ancient Poggioreale: an opportunity for reflection on the topic of post-earthquake territory abandonment

7 After 50 years since the ruinous earthquake that hit the Belìce valley, many post‐earthquake 8 problems are still unresolved. One of the major problems here is territory abandonment. This 9 phenomenon had already started before the earthquake, after which it accelerated. Today, 10 territory abandonment, also due to a combination of other factors affects several other areas of 11 Italy. The phenomenon, more topical than ever, is the focus of the present study. Territory 12 abandonment can be read as both a warning and as a way to stimulate research aimed at finding 13 solutions in order to avoid that this phenomenon keeps repeating. The analysis of the history 14 and the assessment of the current economic and social situation of the Belìce valley, provides a 15 comprehensive picture of the events and their consequences which constitute the basis for the 16 development of effective strategies. The case study we have chosen for the present paper is the 17 ancient village of Poggioreale, today a picturesque ghost town. The multidisciplinary strategy 18 we propose, drawing on the knowledge, experience and skills of different disciplines, has the 19 ambition to address the problem from three points of view: memory, dwelling, and production. 20 It is a fact that one of the main problems before and after many earthquakes is poor or no 21 communication between the various institutional actors involved in dealing with both seismic 22 prevention policies and related emergencies. Hence, the strategy we recommend highlights the 23 importance of taking into account all the different processes involved, to offer more than one 24 solution for the same problem. 25


26
The subject we wish to draw the attention to is territory abandonment in the aftermath of 27 catastrophic events such as earthquakes. The decision to leave the affected area and relocate 28 elsewhere, though it might, to some extent, help coping with the problem, adds pain to an 29 already distressful situation. The attachment to one's own land and hometown for instance, is 30 still there though much of the city is gone. This is what happened in Valle del Belìce. Here we 31 will investigate the phenomenon of territory abandonment and evaluate strategies to prevent 32 it from happening again. 33 Narrating the 1968 Belìce events, this paper highlights the effects of that earthquake, the 34 response by the government and the outcomes of the choices that were made with regard to 35 both in situ or delocalized reconstruction projects. Belìce today, after over 50 years the seismic 36 event took place, can be defined as an incomplete territory, with great potential but without the 37 much needed resources to exploit it. 38 The small town of Poggioreale in particular, is an excellent case study to shed light on the 39 abandonment phenomenon and its direct consequences on the human lives and the actual 40 stones and materials making up the territory. The new multicenter, delocalized town has 41 contributed to turn the "ancient Poggioreale" into something resembling a ghost town movie 42 set, and should this film be shot, it would have to deal with the ghosts of its past. 43 The phenomenon of abandonment has involved the whole valley and Poggioreale in particular. 44 Here we propose our considerations in order to address this reality and to develop a new 45 awareness on the issue through the analysis of the consequences of territory abandonment. Which redevelopment strategy could offer the right solution for a territory that has suffered the 47 destruction of its identity due to both the earthquake and the mortification of its history 48 resulting from its subsequent abandonment? 49 Studying the strategies that are being perfected in order to solve this problem can provide an 50 answer. Most strategies, however, have to deal with a lack of a global vision and synergy by the 51 parties involved. Moreover, every discipline and sector with their skills and expertise, often fail 52 to take into account different perspectives, thus producing only partial solutions to the 53 problem. 54 Conscious of these risks, a multidisciplinary strategy that proposes a process rather than a 55 project could be a solution for Poggioreale. The present work has a two objectives. The first is 56 to draw attention, at the local level, to the future of the town; the second is to reflect on the 57 consequences of the phenomenon of territory abandonment as a whole. The Belìce earthquake presents some anomalies, such as the official number of casualties, 61 evacuees and inhabitants involved. The many media outlets and the official press releases by 62 the government report very different figures with regard to these groups of people (Caldo, 63 1975). What is certain though, is that at the end of the 10-day seismic swarm, during which we 64 remember the most destructive shock took place on January 15 (MW = 6,4), about 58% of the 65 population had to leave their homes, which shows the extent to which the local community had 66 until then underestimated the risks and dangers posed by earthquakes. 67 The Belìce economic reality was very poor, based on semi-archaic agricultural methods by 68 people who used to grow their crops in small family-run plots of land. Few were the specialized 69 viniculture establishments in partnership with the agro-industrial complex. Markets were 70 discouraged by the territory's very poor road system and construction materials were difficult 71 to find locally. Because the area had until then been considered low-risk in terms of seismic 72 activity, governmental institutions had never studied, designed and implemented prevention 73 and safety measures. Hence, as it is often the case, underdevelopment generated poverty, and 74 poverty vulnerability.

76
2. 1 The State response 77 The conditions of the affected population appeared extremely harsh, worsened by the slow and 78 inadequate actions by first responders. Support and grants by the government were enough 79 but distribution of these resources lacked coordination thus failing to be effective and rational.

80
The Belìce events in fact, have become a well-known example of emergency and reconstruction 81 mismanagement. There was little or no organized intervention, whilst many irregularities took 82 place due to various expertise and responsibility overlaps. Security systems and supervision 83 too were inadequate: there were cases of abbrochment on the part of individuals from areas 84 spared by the earthquake as well as cases of urban speculation and usury.

85
The outrage caused by such mismanagement and delays however started a nationwide debate 86 on the media, which led to the re-organization of Civil Protection Department.

87
As it's known, the central government insisted on running the needed operations from Rome, 88 which means a centralized and highly bureaucratic management of the emergency, preventing, 89 at the same time, the local communities from having any control over the process. The central 90 government, instead of trying to understand the economic and social dynamics of the 91 community prior to the earthquake in order to improve and modernize them, pushed for a so-   Faced with this political and administrative impasse, the central government stimulated 108 migration, handing out free one-way train tickets asking neither bureaucratic formalities nor 109 passports: it was the most simple way to ease social pressure, but at the same time this started 110 the devastating territory abandonment we will discuss below, which generated ghost towns 111 and, to borrow a sci-fi film expression, "replicant towns". After the earthquake, the Belìce mayors were asked to choose whether to rebuild in situ or in 115 other areas. As it is known, some municipalities, such as Santa Ninfa, were determined to 116 rebuild their towns at their original sites, whereas others opted for delocalization (Poggioreale, 117 salaparuta, Gibellina).

118
The reasons behind the delocalization option stemmed from the idea of improving the quality 119 of life of the agricultural working class: the reconstruction of the new urban nuclei was to be 120 consistent with anti-seismic planimetrics, new construction techniques and design concepts.

121
The earthquake started being considered as an opportunity to attract, in a peripheral area of 122 the country, personalities from the fields of architecture, city planning and the arts who would 123 contribute to the reconstruction with their theoretical and academic skills and vision. We must 124 not forget that in those years construction was a driving force of the country's economy and it 125 goes without saying that many were interested in promoting and getting involved in such   The key point is that either type of selected reconstruction modality should meet the 135 requirements of sustainable development to safeguard the economic growth, the environment, 136 and the local cultural production in order to ensure and foster residential satisfaction.

137
This, as it's known, however did not take place in Belìce. The predicted industrial development 138 as we have seen did not take off because the local inhabitants were not given the opportunities  As for the idea of rebirth starting from the ideal of beauty, advertized for the new Gibellina, 143 existential divide between artists and the community, and between "ideologists" and the "faces 144 of ideology", was and is still very wide, producing the well-known outcomes of alienation which 145 have often been discussed in the literature of the sector (Ciaravella, 2013). For more than half a century, it was hoped that the refoundation would constitute an 147 opportunity for the Valle del Belìce: "The earthquake should have been a great occasion for the 148 reconstruction process, but above all a turning point for a more modern economy, to create job 149 opportunities for young people and avoid their fleeing the territory" (La Ferla 2004, p. 10). But, 150 as it's known, the failures of both reconstruction and the city models proposed for the new 151 towns did not meet the needs of the citizens that decided to remain.

152
This is how some cities were founded, and they can be metaphorically seen as "offspring" of 153 their time, but not the "parents" of their inhabitants.

154
However, looking a bit closer at the Belìce case, despite the accounts of the time and the more 155 recent ones report that the earthquake was a missed opportunity, it has only sped up the 156 depopulation process which had already started at the time when the earthquake struck.

157
Moreover, the population, as mentioned above, out of necessity and also because they were 158 encouraged to leave, left their native territories for distant places, beyond the national borders.

159
The phenomenon of youth migration, that was a fact before the earthquake, is often ignored by    Undoubtedly, this planning stalemate has a negative impact on the territory which is trying to Belìce is still a reality characterized by disorganized and disconnected businesses struggling to 202 take off. As a result, more people keep emigrating thus worsening the depopulation problem.

203
Hence, the average age of the population of the new cities (Gibbellina, etc.), including the ones 204 built in situ (Salemi, etc.) keeps increasing, while the villages that were abandoned after the 205 earthquake stand like defaced "corpses of stones" because they were left "unburied", that is, in 206 a state of complete neglect and exposed to the elements, facing oblivion.  In the meantime the old town got totally abandoned, proof of its long and unstoppable agony.  from relocation to a safer place, to real estate speculation, to the desire to start a new life but 235 somewhere else, to the hope of living in a more comfortable and suitable context capable of 236 meeting the real needs of its inhabitants, to the project of looking for a new job and new dreams.

237
Recent events on post-earthquake abandonment cases, show that the phenomenon keeps 238 repeating in ways that have alarmed scholars such as Salvatore Settis, who noted that after the 239 2009 earthquake, the historic center of L'Aquila was emptied, leaving it to its bleak 240 abandonment, and building a satellite city belt (Settis 2014).

241
What happens when a territory is abandoned? The answers are as many as the number of such 242 cases.

243
Before starting to reflect on the multiple consequences of abandonment, we remember that, as  Discontinuity is the rule that seems to fuel the universe, which is a "never-ending cycle of 285 genesis, growth and transmutation of forms" (Benincasa 1978, p. 11).

286
Are we to passively accept the course of events? Or should we try to reanimate the stones that, 287 deprived of their soul, would be lost forever? Is the effort to save these realities pointless when 288 history seems to have already determined their fate? Why, on the other hand, it is urgent to 289 consider which strategies should be improved in order to save such places? The reasons for this 290 can perhaps be found in the words by Zevi, according to whom "every Sicilian town or village 291 is an atypical phenomenon, a unicum impossible to duplicate" (Zevi 1994, p. 56). The possible 292 loss of this heritage, we would add, constitutes an irreparable damage, due not only to the 293 unique character of its components and materials but also for the socio-cultural and economic 294 survival of the community in that area or region.   Abandoned or near-abandoned towns and surrounding areas defined as "internal" as well as 318 "fragile", "shrinking" and "marginal", make up more than two thirds of the entire Italian 319 territory (De Rossi 2018). Due to the size of this reality, their communities and territories are 320 the object of an inversion of the previous strategies, that is, the focus now is on revitalization 321 projects throughout the national territory.

322
Indeed, the phenomenon is not only linked to natural catastrophic events, but has taken on a 323 more general dimension. The data are continuously updated with an ever-increasing number 324 of cities and territories that are already ghost towns or about to be abandoned. In addition to 325 being a topical problem, the phenomenon of abandonment of the territory is an issue that 326 cannot be ignored any longer. The subject is heritage, its significance (Choay 1995), but also 327 landscape and its value. A strategic approach on a landscape and territorial scale, considers the 328 centers in a state of neglect in relation to their territory or landscape. The proposed strategies 329 therefore are for a city-landscape or city-territory solution, seen as a single entity.

330
The city-landscape, the concept according to which everything is landscape (Kroll 1999  for assessing the "specific resilience" of socio-urban systems to assess possible action scenarios 354 that can be adaptive or transformative.

355
Marco Navarra proposes a strategy that takes into account the concept of resilience. He 356 transforms "resilience" into "resili(g)ence", a neologism derived from 'resilience' as a novel and 357 intelligent approach, to see the problem as a whole and deal with it accordingly (Navarra 2017).

358
The role of the researcher and architect when faced with a catastrophic event is to ask the  the river Belìce: this is the ambit this research group has to refer to for the relevant analyses 384 and territorial strategies to implement in order to give new life to the valley.

385
The proposal is a geographic strategy working for homogenous environmental units that can 386 be studied and developed taking into account the territorial peculiarities. Together with this, 387 strategies for the involvement of the citizens should be perfected, knowing that after 50 years, 388 as in the Belìce case, there is little trust left. However, it is about finding the right instruments 389 so that a community feel active and involved again in the rebirth of their territory.

390
In general, the studied strategies for a context cannot be applied tout court to other ones,     Many are the possible answers to these considerations; several the approaches and prospects.

447
Below we will outline a synthetic proposal developed by the research group as in the footnote.

448
The idea is to suggest a long-term solution to give new life to the old town of Poggioreale, a 449 solution that is also sustainable from the economic, social and environmental points of view. Belìce as a whole, our group proposes a strategy based on the following three main themes: 453 memory, dwelling (as the concept of living the city), and production ( fig.2). 454 We believe in fact, that to give new life to a town, besides being repopulated, its economy has 455 to be reactivated and this means a new local production of both services and goods, without of 456 course forgetting the preservation of the city's memory and history. In order to develop the first theme, namely, memory, the city's landmarks strongly linked to its 462 identity (including the calamitous event that took place in 1968) must be protected to project 463 these memories in the future on behalf of the next generations.

465
The second theme, dwelling, will be addressed by redeveloping the buildings suited for 466 residential purposes, not only in terms of a place where people live and enjoy their hometown, 467 but also in terms of welcoming tourists. We believe that promoting tourism and itineraries that 468 create a network among the various villages and towns of the valley that constitute an 469 attraction for visitors, is a key factor in determining the rebirth of the town. which belong to an age-old tradition but whose production processes have been updated 493 thanks to modernized farming techniques and facilities attracting local and foreign investors.

494
Interventions by private citizens could be further encouraged through significant tax-cuts.

495
Part of the activities linked to the agroindustrial production chain could be developed also 496 within the old town (through retailers, small processing laboratories, etc.) to connect the latter 497 with the farmland, thus adding value to the products' excellence. Accordingly, whenever it is  Obviously requalifying the town means also taking into account the requirements for a safer 503 and more functional fruition of public and private spaces. In line with this, the urban fabric 504 could be streamlined as to redefine the relationship between constructions and empty spaces. These interventions concern the entire urban fabric and aim at selecting different procedures 526 for different types of buildings. restore "as and where it was". This type of intervention is selected for a specific church 530 (Saint Antonio) and responds to the wishes of those who emigrated to Australia to 531 rebuild the church of the Patron Saint exactly as it was before the earthquake (they have 532 also set up fund-raising events to contribute to this project). conservation. An example is given by Palazzo Tamburello-Agosta, that will be turned 540 into a museum of popular traditions.  4. The fourth category is "Ruins as a function of memory" (fig. 6). This type of intervention 557 is about the realization of a "garden of memory". A place or rather, a series of places, 558 where the ruins will be left as they are: they will only be cleaned up and consolidated.

559
To connect these different places of the town a new road pavement will be designed, 560 using reused stones. The name of the garden is "palimpsest" because it is a new sign but 561 where traces from the past are still visible. Within these four categories of intervention some illustrative projects for specific buildings 567 have been proposed. The first one has been developed for the Mother Church (the main church 568 of the town) situated in the old town, which is still lying in ruins ( fig.7).

569
The idea of the project is to provide, protecting and restoring the ruins, an emblematic view of 570 the Church. For this purpose, we propose to extrude the height of the perimeter walls to 571 incorporate what remains of the bell tower. The new walls will have an independent structure, 572 to avoid adding weight to the weak masonry structures. The Church's interiors will be 573 "modeled" by the light that enters through a system of invisible ribbon-like windows situated 574 high on the walls, in the void between the rib vault and the extruded walls. A blade of light 575 brushing against the walls will create a pervasive aura of closeness and spiritual emotions.

576
The proposed intervention aims to emphasize the idea of standing ruins to convey the idea that 577 in a way time stopped forever when the earthquake struck. The idea is to see the new part as a 578 representation of the sky. That is why light is given great importance, creating a white and 579 abstract space. The ruin is not falsely remodeled, but shows the wounds inflicted by the time

596
This project involves the conservation of the partially intact masonry structure, whereas the 597 north-western part is almost non-existent. The design choice aims to preserve the existing 598 building and integrate it with a new wooden self-built structure, using a platform-frame system, 599 so to keep the original shape/design of the construction. In determining the layout of the 600 apartments, we have tried to meet the demands of more modern and different housing 601 concepts, by adding three different plan/design proposals. Seismic and energy performance 602 will be improved, with minimum changes in terms of technological and material features of the 603 building.

604
An analogous intervention has been planned also for a building that will be used for commercial starts the most complex and delicate phase, which is about the best way to rebuild the city and 612 above all give new life to a place that, due to a violent shock, has lost its integrity, its place and 613 especially its soul. The risk is that devastations often trigger the exodus of a large number of 614 the affected citizens, as it happened in the Belìce valley, speeding up the city's depopulation 615 process. We are therefore confronted with yet another big problem: the post-earthquake 616 abandonment of the territory and its revitalization, the topic we have reflected on in the present 617 contribution, trying to learn more about the dynamics involved and offer workable solutions.

618
The old town of Poggioreale, now an actual ghost town, which has offered the prompt for this 619 discussion, deserves to be revitalized otherwise its complete demise is inevitable.

620
Learning from past mistakes and starting from the ideas offered by the various strategic 621 approaches analyzed, we have tried to define a possible strategy for the revitalization of the old 622 town through some key assumptions: today we need to analyze the real opportunities offered 623 by a real and sustainable, economic and cultural rebirth. We must interpret the conditions and 624 new ways that facilitate investments by individuals who can boost the economy of the 625 collectivity. We must also work for a more user-friendly bureaucracy in order to create the