The Fortified Landscape of the Bassa Vallagarina in Trentino. Recognizing, Preserving and Narrating a Long-period Stratification

Abstract

The fortified landscape of Bassa Vallagarina in Trentino, around the Chiusa of Serravalle, is characterized by the presence of a palimpsest which has been stratified over a long-period and which includes the ruins of the mediaeval castles of Chizzola and Sajori and an articulated system of field fortifications, also built in the immediate vicinity, during the First World War. It is a complex stratification where the architectural evidence of the ruins is flanked, intersected and intertwined with a set of field fortifications, still partially visible, but with different degrees of recognisability and conservation:  trenches, defensive posts, underground shelters, walkways, and cave routes that appear as a heritage of “minor signs” in comparison with the architecture of the forts. Contemporary culture has long recognized the testimonial value preserved not only in the fragments of castle architecture but also in what remains of field fortifications, whose informative potential lies in a fragile balance between presence and absence; a balance that poses a new conservation challenge. The paper presents an original knowledge-based method that allows for their unveiling and some design scenarios for their conservation and enhancement: a museum itinerary where the monumental and minute fragments of the multiform fortified system regain meaning with forms of integration at different degrees of narrative interpretation.