From the Landscape of Contrasts to the Landscape of Invisible Cities: A Strategic Landscape Design for the Revitalization of the Ancient Greek Colony of Megara Hyblaea in Sicily

The present research aims at revitalising the archaeological park of Megara Hyblaea through innovative strategies developed within the PON project “An early warning system for cultural heritage/e-WAS”. In this project Sicilian research institutions, universities and companies pursue the common goal of developing new technologies for the protection, enhancement and strategic management of the historical and cultural heritage. The ancient Greek colony of Megara Hyblaea is immersed in an industrial landscape that stretches along the coast of eastern Sicily from Augusta to Syracuse. The sense of the original place has been obliterated by an indiscriminate occupation of the land by industries which have left, here and there, an archipelago of “patrimonial wrecks”, which are equally close to the smelly chimneys and the horizon of the sea. This landscape of contrasts, dominated by petrochemical industries, has over time hindered a cultural tourism appropriate to the representativeness and importance of the asset, despite the efforts made by the authorities responsible for its protection. The paper demonstrates the need for a holistic approach to the revitalisation project of the archaeological site: the strategic design, understood as the story of the overlapping of “invisible cities”, aims to reorganise and re-conquer places through a new narrative coherent with hidden values, going as far as the experimentation of innovative technologies for the creation of facilities for the enjoyment of the park.