The paper proposes a reflection on the cogent and epochal issue represented by the identity crisis that affects our cities and the progressive loss of shared values on which every community has always been founded. The history of places can suggest useful starting point for reasoning not through its direct actualization but through a deep understanding of the phenomena that occurred. The earthquake that struck the Val di Noto in 1693 is the exemplum of the paper; the strongest earthquake ever recorded on Italian soil destroys about sixty villages in south-east- ern Sicily, triggering a complex and uneven re- construction process of extraordinary utility for reflecting on the relationship between what disappears and what remains, and not only in a material sense. There are three cases of rebuilt cities in which the specific differences bring out an underground analogy: Catania, among the most destroyed cities, the only one to rebuild it- self on its ashes; Palazzolo Acreide, rebuilt from the ruins of the castle that once dominated it; Noto, one of the destroyed cities to move to a new site on which to rebuild.
E qualcosa rimane. Il terremoto del 1693 come occasione per ricostruire l’identità dei luoghi: tre casi nella Sicilia sud-orientale
Foti F.;Mauro A.;Pennisi M.;Morana A.
2026-01-01
Abstract
The paper proposes a reflection on the cogent and epochal issue represented by the identity crisis that affects our cities and the progressive loss of shared values on which every community has always been founded. The history of places can suggest useful starting point for reasoning not through its direct actualization but through a deep understanding of the phenomena that occurred. The earthquake that struck the Val di Noto in 1693 is the exemplum of the paper; the strongest earthquake ever recorded on Italian soil destroys about sixty villages in south-east- ern Sicily, triggering a complex and uneven re- construction process of extraordinary utility for reflecting on the relationship between what disappears and what remains, and not only in a material sense. There are three cases of rebuilt cities in which the specific differences bring out an underground analogy: Catania, among the most destroyed cities, the only one to rebuild it- self on its ashes; Palazzolo Acreide, rebuilt from the ruins of the castle that once dominated it; Noto, one of the destroyed cities to move to a new site on which to rebuild.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
