Dry-stone walls in the hyblean landscape: intangible and tangible heritage at risk

The building tradition of the “dry-stone walls” has identified, since the sixteenth century, the landscape of the Hyblean Mountains in eastern Sicily. The intangible heritage of experience, skills and organization of the productive cycles, which developed around this apparently simple and poor building technique is reflected into the knowledge handed down by expert and elderly stone-cutters to young apprentices; the ancient craftsmanship has been an incredible instrument allowing the continuity of a tradition and a culture orally inherited and transmitted from generation to generation. The progressive loss of interest and the total lack of awareness towards such an important wealth of knowledge could lead to the abandonment of an invaluable resource for the conservation of the Sicilian agricultural landscape and could irreversibly transform the culture and the identity of the sites.