Alcune note sui cantieri edilizi di Cencelle tra IX e XIV secolo

The present contribution is a first assessment of the building techniques and arrangements in the construction sites at Leopoli-Cencelle in light of the latest discoveries from the excavation campaigns and the reflections emerging within the scientific team regarding the first stages of development of the city founded by Pope Leo IV in 954. As for the early Middle Ages, the few wall fragments survived to the radical restructuring of the city from the XII Century have allowed us to reconstruct the modus operandi of the workforce active in the construction sites, where re-used materials, especially large vitric-ash tuff blocks, were assembled with other materials extracted from nearby mines. The use of durable materials assembled with high quality mortar marks out the major urban construction sites from the walls, as well as the S. Pietro church and the edifice where the secular authorities were probably headquartered. These come alongside with residential buildings which instead were built using perishable materials. From the XII Century, but mostly throughout the XIII and the first half of the XIV Centuries, the city was radically restructured, by redesigning the urban centre through the new S. Pietro church and the public palace, as well the creation of new areas both for residential and commercial activities. The main buildings (church, public palace, and tower-houses) show high-level architectural solutions, realized with specific materials, mostly tuff and trachyte, by skilled and specialized workforce. On the other hand, the study of the minor urban fabric from the same period of large urban planning between the XIII Century and the first half of the XIV Century indicates the simultaneous presence of less skilled workers, who were still able to handle and adapt the local building materials to the morphological conditions of the sites.