A Territorial Approach to the Production of Urban and Rural Landscape.

Abstract

The authors, starting from the examination of the historic data of Palermo landscapes on the south-east side, draws up an analysis of the landscape by illustrating the environmental characteristics and the intervention of man in its transformations. Therefore, determined by a certain point to refer to, the author, on the basis of archival, literary, and existing graphic documentation, has therefore sought to illustrate the evolution of the landscape in the geographical area of Maredolce while still presenting relations with the territory of Palermo. Examining the diaries at the end of the eighteenth century with the help of the water colored planks of the sites taking into account the great patrimony left by landscape painters of the period brought a great deal of information. In this sense it is possible to evaluate the transformation of Maredolce from swampy and abandoned land of the last seventeenth century (end of sugary activity) to that of new irrigation agriculture. Transformation that is common to the entire territory of Palermo, with which numerous comparisons are also carried out on the basis of archival documentation. With the introduction of the industrial economy of the citrus which has wiped out any past historical stratification; before being swept by the cementation of the ‘Conca d’Oro’ which still lasts and of which Maredolce (historic palace and its garden) is the last environmental and cultural heritage as a holistic ecosystem that should absolutely be saved by using integrated urban planning with responsible architectonic restoration approaches