Il territorio in Liguria: il caso delle "fasce" in: Genova, una 'porta' del Mediterraneo

The work tries to analyze in detail the "fasce" - as the dry stone walls built to contain the steep slopes are called in Liguria - that are now considered to be distinctive features of the Ligurian territory and the expression of a slow transformation of the landscape enacted by a thousand-year "know-how", which today is likely to be lost. The "fasce", built by farmers during the Nineteenth century mainly for the intensive cultivation of olives, created a multiform terraced landscape, expression of the identity of places, resources, and geomorphological and microclimate features. Techniques, materials and cultures of a lost rural culture but just behind us as a result of the urbanization process starting in the sixties and the progressive removal of a way of life which is no longer viable. The abandonment and deterioration, the continuing and catastrophic phenomena of landslides and mudslides - the Cinque Terre are actually considered as a paradise lost - but particularly the acknowledgement that the "fasce" are an invaluable historical, cultural and geotechnical heritage require the need of a serious recovery of terraces, no longer to be postponed, as a future land conservation resource.