Earthquakes test on monuments and small towns in Abruzzo. Achievements and theoretical issues

In the aftermath of every earthquake, that regularly hits our peninsula and such territories that due to their geomorphological aspects co-exist with this natural disaster, we witness a season of anxiety and disorientation, but also of experimentations and innovations in which reconstruction is marked by new methodological approaches, greater focus on pre-existing arrangements and the traditional construction site, by analysis and computing systems that are scientifically updated, even if frequently hardly effective in the protection and preservation of historical-artistic sites. The loss of monuments seems to have justified radical reconstruction methods, following the practice of replicating a damaged building. Other times, regressing from the principles of the culture of restoration, these monuments were stripped off stratifications, to recover a-critically what was thought of as the «finished guise», with a clear prevalence of consistency of style over preservation. The contribution attempts to analyze the Abruzzo case that gives a microcosm of examples, not just concerning the causes, methods, speed and degrees of abandon, but also the different geographical, morphological and geological conditions. It seems that the relationship with the landscape is the most relevant reference for operations on the territory able to network urban centers and to transform the various critical issues.