Il Patrimonio Mondiale in pericolo: il ruolo della Lista UNESCO per i beni minacciati dai conflitti

La più nota è la cattedrale di Santa Sofia a Kiev: sette sono i siti, in Ucraina, dichiarati Patrimonio Mondiale UNESCO per il loro “valore universale eccezionale”. L’attuale condizione politica dello stato ucraino, devastato dagli attacchi russi, minaccia anche il patrimonio: questa circostanza induce a riflettere sugli strumenti a disposizione esistenti per la salvaguardia dei beni UNESCO a rischio. La possibilità, prevista per i beni della Lista del Patrimonio dell’Umanità, di rientrare all’interno della Lista del Patrimonio Mondiale in pericolo ha l’obiettivo di porre l’attenzione della comunità internazionale su specifiche minacce: il Comitato UNESCO intraprenderà azioni protettive mirate, per prevenire e rispondere ad azioni lesive dei beni. L’analisi delle strategie previste per il Patrimonio Mondiale in pericolo – pericoli tra cui configura anche il conflitto armato - porta a considerarne l’importanza, tanto da poter essere valutate forse le più efficaci tra le esistenti disposizioni sulla protezione dei beni in caso di conflitto armato, grazie alle azioni di supporto tecnico e finanziario previste

Rammendare la memoria, tra conservazione di resti materiali e riconoscimento di frammenti intangibili. Il caso di Poggioreale antica (TP)

This contribution questions the future of those places that, abandoned after a catastrophe, are still fully recognizable in their essential characteristics and in which it is possible to perceive links of memory with the life that took place there and was suddenly interrupted. The interest in these places, which has increased in recent years, constitutes an opportunity for reflection on the nature of the protection to be carried out and on the declination of possible interventions to slow down the processes of degradation and progressive loss. The reflection will move around the case of ancient Poggioreale, a small Sicilian town abandoned after the Belice Valley earthquake in 1968, left to a destiny of inexorable decline and forcibly forgotten by its community. The passage of more than half a century since the event has given us a ruin whose physical weakening is progressing more and more, leading also to the loss of the memory of the life of its community. The material condition of Poggioreale leads to the question of whether a strategy aimed at bringing the settlement back to life is feasible or whether it is not more reasonable to think of the ruins as having an archaeological use, feasible with conservation interventions other than those conceivable for its re-functionalization. The emotional involvement deriving from the resistant architecture of Poggioreale seems to suggest the importance of recomposing the collective memory of the place, in which the conservation of the material remains made up of the architecture still standing and a largely recognizable fabric is linked to the recognition and valorisation of the intangible fragments, that is, all the aspects linked to the memory of what this place was and the ways of life of its communit

Preservation of Abandoned Historic Centres — The Case of Poggioreale antica (Sicily)

Among the fourteen towns most damaged by the earthquake that struck western Sicily in 1968, Poggioreale was subjected to total relocation a few kilometres away, and to the transfer of its whole population. More than half a century later, the damaged settlement is still largely recognisable and has been experiencing a new season of interest for some years now, both from the local community and various kinds of outsiders who imagine economic spin-offs of an uncertain nature in its enhancement. The research we present questions the chance of survival for the settlement, forgotten for decades, in the context of interventions aimed at its reuse. Alternative strategies are discussed: on the one hand, that of bringing the ancient centre back to life, even in part, with a limited inclusion of collective functions and without claiming to inhabit it again; on the other hand, and in the authors’ opinion, more likely, that of reusing the ruins as an archaeological area preserving their memory in a different form. In either case, the kinds of operations to be carried out on the body of the ancient buildings for their physical preservation play a key role. These issues are addressed as a whole through the canonical procedure of correlating the phases of knowledge, interpretation, and definition of minimal and compatible intervention criteria

Role of Cardiac Imaging: Echocardiography

Echocardiography has crucial importance in the diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Echocardiographic features of DCM are left ventricular (LV) dilation and systolic dysfunction with impaired global contractility and normal LV wall thickness and LV diastolic dysfunction with elevation in LV filling pressure. Other frequent characteristics are LV dyssynchrony, right ventricular (RV) dysfunction, atrial dilation, functional mitral and tricuspid regurgitation, and secondary pulmonary hypertension. New echocardiographic technologies can be helpful, i.e., three-dimensional (3D) echocardiography for more accurate assessment of LV volumes and ejection fraction (EF) and speckle tracking for analysis of strain particularly for early diagnosis. Of note, many echocardiographic parameters have demonstrated important prognostic value in DCM

Sensory phenomena in children with Tourette syndrome or autism spectrum disorder

BackgroundTourette syndrome (TS) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are two neurodevelopmental disorders with an onset before the age of 18 years. TS patients frequently reported atypical sensory phenomena (SP). Sensory processing abnormalities are also particularly frequent in ASD individuals.ObjectivesConsidering the higher rate of atypical sensory behaviours in both neurodevelopmental disorders, in the present study we analysed sensory experiences in patients with ASD and in patients with TS.MethodsWe enrolled patients with a primary diagnosis of TS or ASD. All participants were assessed for primary diagnosis and associated comorbidities. The presence of sensory behaviours was investigated using the University of Sao Paulo’s Sensory Phenomena Scale (USP-SPS).ResultsSP were significantly more represented in the ASD-group versus TS-group, except for sound just-right perceptions and energy to released. ASD participants presented higher mean scores in all fields of USP-SPS severity scale respect on TS patients and healthy controls. The USP-SPS total score had significant positive correlations with the CYBOCS and MASC total scores in the TS cohort. In the ASD group, the USP-SPS total score was significantly negative correlated with the total IQ and marginally positive correlated with ADOS total score.ConclusionSP are a frequently reported characteristic both of ASD and TS. Future studies are needed to better evaluate the differences on their phenomenology in patients with TS and ASD

Masons, nobles and viceroys. Building techniques in ancien régime Sicily. Catalan vaults in Poggioreale

The new towns founded in Sicily between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries – more than 150, with a climax in the first half of the seventeenth century – allow us to reflect on the construction history in ancien régime Sicily and specifically on the reception of an imported vaults’ construction model, referred to as Catalan vaults. After a brief resumé of the state-of-the-art on the diffusion of tile vaults, the paper focuses on the ancient city of Poggioreale, founded in 1642 and abandoned after the violent Belice earthquake of 1968. The old settlement’s urban layout and construction systems are still perfectly recognisable, and this condition allows us to analyse the techniques used in the seventeenth century for its foundation. Among these, that used for the vaults is visible because of the numerous collapses that often reveal their sections. The vaults are made of rubble stones and gypsum binder, all of them have counter-vaults on the extrados, and their springs seem to rely just on the roughness of the contact’s surfaces without any housing, either projecting or recessed, in the walls. The paper aims to analyse the particular construction type of the Poggioreale vaults by framing it within the panorama of thin vaults in seventeenth century Sicily and their variants, using additional examples found on the island (that hint at a more conspicuous local presence than can be currently recorded

"The so-called ‘Palazzetto’ in the Palazzo di Venezia Complex: a small construction history among the huge transformation events of the Rome centre in the early twentieth century"

The paper illustrates the events relating to the translation of the so-called “Palazzetto di Venezia” from the site where it had been built in 1464 – at the behest of Pope Paolo II – to its current position not far from the previous one. The Viridarium, so the earliest palazzetto was called, had been conceived as the pope’s private garden, accessible directly from the piano nobile of his residence (the current palazzo Venezia) by means of a private passage and connected to the adjacent Capitoline hill by a raised walkway supported by arches. In the framework of the great urban transformations related to the construction of the monument dedicated to Vittorio Emanuele II (first monarch of the new unified Italy) on the northern slope of the Capitoline Hill, in the early twentieth century the Viridarium was demolished and rebuilt – according to the pre-existent building’s architectural language – in a position which still allowed the connection with Palazzo Venezia without interfering with the organisation of the new great plaza realised in place of the historical urban fabric. These consecutive building sites – demolition before, reconstruction then – lasted from 1908 to 1911 and involved a series of interventions on Palazzo Venezia’s masonry structure itself, aimed at strengthening the tower to which the Viridarium was previously adjacent and at modifying the wing of the palace which the new Palazzetto had to join with. Simultaneous to the overall transformations involving the palazzo Venezia were the events directly connected to the construction of the new Palazzetto. After a brief description of the general context, the core of the paper aims to clarify restrictions that the design had to face to as well as the choice of the construction techniques. These issues are here investigated through the analysis of the archive documents – partially preserved in Rome, partially in Wien (being the building complex at that time still property of the Austro-Hungarian government) – and information coming from the on-site investigations executed on the building body. What emerges is a quite precise picture that describes the building as the product of a contemporary constructive site which is still characterised by the persistence of a masonry conception of the building organism, implemented, however, using the materials of industrial production such us bricks and metal beams. The contemporary materials employed in the construction conflict with the building’s traditional appearance which is simulated by the decorative apparatus (coffered wooden ceilings and vaulted spaces) overlapped on the real structural framework. However, the building incorporates parts of the earliest Viridarium such as the stone elements of the cloister now clearly recognizable in the current Palazzetto’s portico and loggia

EGLACOM cruise on the southern Svalbard margin: preliminary results from sedimentary cores

18nonenoneCABURLOTTO A; LUCCHI R.; MELIS R.; FINOCCHIARO F.; MACRÌ P.; SAGNOTTI L.; VILLA G.; PERSICO D.; GIORGETTI G.; DE VITTOR C.; DEL NEGRO P.; CACHO I.; BARCENA M. A.; CABRINI M.; FORNASARO D.; PUSCEDDU A.; CAMERLENGHI A.; REBESCO M.Caburlotto, A; Lucchi, R.; Melis, Romana; Finocchiaro, Furio; Macrì, P.; Sagnotti, L.; Villa, G.; Persico, D.; Giorgetti, G.; DE VITTOR, C.; DEL NEGRO, P.; Cacho, I.; Barcena, M. A.; Cabrini, M.; Fornasaro, D.; Pusceddu, A.; Camerlenghi, Angelo; Rebesco, M