Montecastelli Pisano and Cerbaiola: virtuous surviving examples of two small old villages

This work analyses the interventions carried out in two close villages, Montecastelli Pisano and Cerbaiola, located in southern Tuscany, in an old mining area called "Colline Metallifere" (Metalliferous hills). Both villages have suffered a strong depopulation after the cessation of the mining activity. Fortunately, both of them are still surviving albeit with different strategies. Montecastelli Pisano was a mining centre in the Medieval Period and later, in the XIXth century, due to a copper vein discovery. Nowadays only 60 people reside in the village but thanks to a small group of willing foreigners who have found here their refuge, the village is rich in cultural activities. Cerbaiola was founded in 1750 as an open countryside village, with an agricultural function, 4 km far from Montecastelli. In the early 60s of the last century, with the end of sharecropping, this small village was completely abandoned and has slowly undergone a process of transformation in ruins. In the 80s part of the buildings have been restored entering in the rural accommodation circuit. The methodologies adopted in the building refurbishment/conservation will be examined in the belief that only by searching for compatible solutions in terms of materials, structures and functionality, it is possible to become promoters of an effective conservation of the rural villages as an architectural heritage of the Mediterranean countries.