A forgotten religious heritage in the north of Apulia

The presence of historical itineraries of worship on the Italian territory gives attention to a very rich architectural and landscape heritage, mostly decommissioned or even completely neglected. Among the examples to be mentioned is the system of buildings linked to the cult of St. Michele Arcangelo and widespread in the Gargano since the 6th century AD to support the pilgrimage routes. What remains nowadays of that system is very little. The ancient routes have fallen into oblivion or have been used otherwise. Few buildings are still active and well-preserved, but many other are reduced to ruins due to the distance from the inhabited centers and to the traffic and communication flows. This work aims to trace the articulated history of these structures not only to network buildings but also to verify large-scale restoration projects, emancipated from the confusion between conservation and speculation and coinciding with actions of enhancement and virtuous recovery.