Historical Prisons between Rediscovered Archives and Disappeared Landscapes in Sardinia

Abstract

The recent process of decommissioning historic prisons has led to the opening of archives (up to now confidential) making available an exceptional and very rich documentary complex of papers, drawings, projects, reports and testimonies. This archival heritage is an invaluable source of information that goes beyond the limits of research focused on the architecture of disused prisons, revealing not only unpublished aspects of individual establishments, but also historical, political and cultural events of national interest. The large number of documents acquired so far and the possibility of studying them from different angles have highlighted the need to systematize the information obtained through archival research, transcription and synthesis of individual documents. In fact, the creation of a searchable database structure makes it possible to guarantee the effective use of all the cognitive apparatus in order to make it available to the scientific community as well as to the bodies responsible for the management of these sites. The proposed contribution therefore describes the construction of a territorial information system dedicated to the archiving, management and publication of archival data directly related to the disused prison architectures present in the Sardinian territory, such as Buoncammino in Cagliari, San Sebastiano in Sassari, the ex-Reggia Giudicale in Oristano and La Rotonda di Tempio Pausania.