The Role of Historic Roads to Preserve and Valorize the Landscape

Abstract

Historic roads are roads that, through design, experience or association, have contributed to our culture in a meaningful way. Historic roads form a very interesting architectonic, technical and cultural linear system: not only the traces, but also the road features (walls, bridges, tunnels, drain wells), the connected buildings (churches, chapels, fortifications, custom-houses, mills, forges, furnaces, mines) rose out of ancient religious, military, commercial or industrial functions with a relationship between villages, towns, landscapes. The type of road, its history and current condition determine the most appropriate action for preservation. As with all historic resources, it is impossible to separate a historic road from its context, its setting. Leaving out the more ancient trails (roman and medieval roads) with a lot of archeological importance, there are many roads dating from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century now transformed or abandoned. These can now be used as landscape, and cultural resources, but it is necessary to preserve and conserve this heritage with specific inventories, analysis and restoration policies and practices in order to define management and valorization plans with historic, touristic and ecological purposes.