Stefania Ricci

Il presente contributo riporta i risultati delle prime indagini volte ad indagare l'origine e la storia dell'insediamento, ormai abbandonato, di Craco in Basilicata.
I pochi studi svolti sino ad oggi su questo centro hanno costituito il punto di partenza per la ricostruzione di una cronologia di eventi storici che, partendo dall'epoca della conquista normanna giunge sino ai nostri giorni.
Attraverso una prima lettura del tessuto urbano si sono ipotizzate e graficizzate le varie fasi di sviluppo dello stesso. Le espansioni sono avvenute in fasi storiche alquanto dissimili e pertanto presentano caratteri disomogenei qui evidenziati.
L'ultima parte del lavoro riguarda l'imponente Donjon di Craco, la torre che caratterizza lo skyline di questo insediamento, ancora oggi ben conservata esternamente, a carattere prettamente militare-difensivo. Sono state considerate analoghe costruzioni presenti in zona ed i rapporti esistenti tra loro confrontando le varie tipologie edilizie e le loro destinazioni d'uso, per arrivare poi all'esame degli elementi costruttivi e della muratura.

This paper reports the results of the first investigations which head to looking into the origin and history of the now abandoned settlement of Craco, in Basilicata.
The few studies carried out to this date on the afore mentioned center have formed the starting point for a historical events chronology's reconstruction which, starting from the time of the Norman Conquest arrives to the present day.
From a first reading of the urban fabric, the different stages of its development were hypothesized and drawn on a graph. The expansions have occurred in fairly dissimilar historical periods and therefore present in homogeneous characters, hereafter highlighted.
The last part of the work concerns the impressive Donjon of Craco, a purely military-defensive, externally well preserved tower, which characterizes the settlement's skyline. Similar buildings present in the area were also considered and the relationships between them were taken into account by comparing the various building types' and their use, to subsequently reach the observation of building elements and masonry. ARIANNA VIOLANTI

The essay focus on the  events that brought in 1905 to the Marche Regional Exposition of Macerata. After a tough economic crisis during the last twenty years of the XIX century, the city of Macerata chose to improve its role in the territory through a big event (that it had tried to organize many times before without success). Once the city gained the approval for the agricultural exhibition, the commission transformed it in a much more ambitious event, with an industrial section and a vernacular and a modern show. It’s the first time, for the Marche history after the unity of Italy in 1861, that the commission of an exposition decided to make an important investment for temporary constructions. The chosen area is the city cattle market and the general planning is made by the engineer Ugo Cantalamessa: a series of pavilions along a boulevard and surrounded by a green area. The event becomes a ‘rappresentative moment’ and not just an economic chance. For the occasion it’s also founded  the magazine «L’Esposizione Marchigiana», origin of «Rivista Marchigiana Illustrata», that from 1906 to Second World War will be protagonist of the artistic and architectural debate of the Marche region. The exposition area is now converted into the biggest public garden of the city, and it still maintains elements of the original design in the oval track and the ‘Rotonda’ (placed where was the Feast Pavilion). The exposition it’s also one of the lost chances of the territory, because it didn’t succeeded in creating an economical and intellectual renewal. The essay recalls the series of events through archive documentations and published sources.             

Key words (4): Exposition – Park – Temporary Architecture ¬ Engineering