Narrative Landscape Master Thesis | Val Chiarone Re-Gained - Between Nature and History

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“As an old tree preserves the record of its life, the Earth maintains the ‘memories’ of the past written in its depths and in its surface, in the rocks and in the landscape; this sort of registration can also be translated.”

(International Declaration of the Rights of the Memory of the Earth Digne_UNESCO 1991)

0 Introduction

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Introduction 0

Carrying out a project for the Master’s Degree Thesis has meant for us to put in place what have turned out to be the most significant nucleus around which our university studies have been articulated, in particular those carried out during the last two years.

Theories, lessons, experiences, friendships and comparisons have made us understand that the most obvious element on which the architect’s work is based is observation. An observation not simply linked to pure and mere contemplation, but which serves as a solid, critical and concrete basis on which to lay the foundations of the project. An observation that leads to the discovery, to the recognition of traces, of signs rich in meaning and value. Hence the difficult task of observing in order to understand and finally reveal, make visible elements, narrate concepts that are invisible to most.

vineyards and woods. These elements rest on a very ancient bone structure, made of volcanic eruptions, folded landscapes and arenaceous rocks.

The project therefore started from the observation, from a deep study of the area of the canoe valley near Chiarone, in the municipality of Pianello Val Tidone, an area also included in the Sites of Community Interest of Emilia-Romagna.

The geomorphological peculiarities of this site, together with the naturalistic ones, which see the diffusion of ferns and prickly pear figs throughout the area, the presence of the majestic Rocca d’Olgisio (included in the circuit of the Castles of the Duchy of Piacenza and Parma) and of a small, but important archaeological site and numerous historical traces found in different caves, have given the start to the project.

The aim of the project was to understand as much as possible this area so complex and rich, then trying, through a series of targeted interventions, to enhance, reveal and narrate what for us are the predominant and characteristic features of this territory.

In the wake of these reflections we chose to develop a project starting from a context close to us, a familiar territory.

Our attention is placed in particular on the Val Tidone, which like all the Piacenza territory, is remarkably rich in history, with its castles and its fortifications and a lush nature that covers the territory with

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1 Abstract

The landscape tells stories of men, succession of events, stories and societies that have had the opportunity to relate to the territory that hosted them, transforming it according to their own vital needs.

Italo Calvino in his novel “The invisible cities” tells of many cities described by the explorer Marco Polo. Among other cities the traveler tells of Zaira and concluding, states: “A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all of Zaira’s past.

But the city does not say its past, it contains it as the lines on a hand, written in the corners of the streets, in the grids of the windows, in the handrails of the stairs, in the antennas of lightning rods, in the flagpoles, each segment lined in turn with scratches, serrations, carvings, gills.”

“Trace, footprint, document, testimony, proof, are synonymous with the term “ mark “. It is normal that the marks we produce, in addition to the marks that we can identify, put us in communication with other people, but also with the rest of the sensible, imperceptible and immaterial world.”

(Mario Giacomelli)

(Italo Calvino, The Invisible Cities) Each landscape is the result of long time (what can be called physical landscape, linked to geomorphology), of the history of nature (natural landscape, connected to the vegetation system) and of human history (cultural landscape, linked to memory). Generations have known this landscape, contemplated it, left their marks on it, even the smallest ones, result of small or large actions. Often these signs are invisible to our eye, remaining hidden under the visible landscape.

The landscape has been built through time, it is the sum of the sedimentations of episodes, of generations gone overlapping and grafting onto each other, recalling the previous ones, often erasing the weakest, the unwelcome, the not useful for social development.

We can think of the landscape as a repository, a storehouse of stories that happened and of facts that time makes fall due to historical progression, a real palimpsest.

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Abstract 1

In the specific case addressed by the thesis project, these reflections and actions are proposed for the enhancement of an existing trekking path that runs along the ridge of the canoe valley in Chiarone (Pianello val Tidone, Piacenza) and that touches points of considerable historical, naturalistic and geomorphological interest.

The path thus reorganized, aims to offer an added value to hikers, enthusiasts and tourists who pass through it, each time providing views, staging points and small installations that enhance, reveal and tells different aspects related to this landscape.

“The landscape is full of signs, symbols, wounds, hidden things. It is an unknown language that begins to be read and to be known when it’s started to be loved, to be photographed. Thus the sign becomes a voice: it clarifies certain things to me, while for others it remains a spot.”

(Mario Giacomelli) The landscape contains large and loud episodes and light and silent episodes.

It welcomes each of these, but does not tell them, since it speaks with the language of nature and of the things that man added seasonally. It’s us, therefore, who must be able to listen and collect the significant words present in it, making it speak, giving it a voice.

This means first reading the landscape through the stories and understanding the signs that remain on it, then the stories themselves will be read through the landscape. Thus the respect for nature, listening and understanding of stratified landscapes are mixed in the design action, in order to find solutions, even the smallest ones, that make traces and places readable, revealing and narrating the hidden meaning they possess deep down.

It was therefore decided to propose three main interventions that followed the theme of the physical landscape (geomorphology), of the perceptive landscape (natural environment) and of the cultural landscape (memory), accompanied by an introductory area to the project and by some small interventions along the way aimed at giving a sense of continuity to the design.

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Valley 2 Tidone geographic informations

2.1 PHISICAL AND GEO-MORFOLOGICAL ASPECTS Val Tidone occupies the western part of the Piacenza territories and is wedged in the hills between Emilia Romagna and Lombardy.

It is located between the Luretta valley to the east, the Staffora valley and the Oltrepò pavese to the west. It begins in the south part of the province at the slopes of Mount Penice (1460m asl) and extends in a hilly area covered with vineyards up to the plain, where the Tidone stream, the river from which the valley takes its name, flows into the Po.

impressive and well known by the locals, but also by the increasing tourism.

The beauty of the landscapes, the mildness of the climate, the tranquillity of the places in addition to the fine food and wine specialties have elected the Val Tidone, over the years, a favorite destination for many important and wellknown people, so much so as to earn the nickname of “Capalbio del Nord”.

Val Tidone is made of silences, hills, woods, vineyards and castles.

The towns crossed by the Val Tidone, from South to North are: Pecorara, Nibbiano, Caminata, Piozzano, Pianello Val Tidone, Agazzano, Ziano Piacentino, Borgonovo Val Tidone, Castel San Giovanni, Sarmato and Rottofreno.

To remember the strategic importance of the Tidone valley over the centuries, we can notice the massive presence of castles spread along the hills: it’s possible to say that almost all the small towns has (or has had) one castle or a defensive tower. The castle of Zavattarello and the Rocca d’Olgisio are particularly

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Tidone Valley geographic informations 2

FIG. Piacenza province. In colour the Tidone Valley with the main municipalities

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Valley 2 Tidone geographic informations

2.1.1 Tidone River, the origin of the name and Molato dam Generator axis and source of wealth for the valley, the Tidone river winds between the provinces of Piacenza and Pavia. In the same way of the other main rivers of the province, it crosses the territory maintaining a SO-NE orientation emerging from Mount Penice (1000m asl) on the Ligurian Apennines in the Province of Pavia in the municipality of Menconico, flowing into the Po river after traveling 47Km.

FIG. Tidone river map in 750 AC

Near Molato of Nibbiano, a mighty dam (completed in 1928) forms the Trebecco lake, a basin of modest extent whose water is used for irrigation and electricity production fed by the Tidone River, from the Morcione stream, and the Rii Cabarato, Fega, Vago and Carrare.

The name of the lake derives from the ancient village of Trebecco, now part of Nibbiano, which at the time of the construction of the dam was an autonomous municipality, located within the Pavia provincial jurisdiction, which included the portion of the valley involved in the construction of the hip bone.

The origin of the name is traced back to a centurion engaged in the battle of Trebbia, whose water had become red from the blood spilled by the deceased soldiers. He found this torrent of pure water with which to quench his thirst at Casa Matti di Romagnese and thanked him saying: “Oh Valley, I give you this ring”; this words “I give you”, in Italian “Ti dono”, remains and during time has changed in today’s name “Tidone”.

During the Austrian Succession War, the river was also a battleground between France and Spain on 10 August 1746 and saw the victory of the Dragons of the King Regiment.

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Tidone Valley geographic informations 2

What makes this work fascinating, in addition to its avant-garde, is certainly its historical and architectural value: as suggested in particular by the façade facing the valley characterized by a series of rows of arches in succession and the lictory beam at the center of the walkway, the Dam is an expression of the particular historical moment during which the fascist period was realized. Not only the style, but also the engineering and the knowledge put in place to carry it out are the result of the important hydraulic and structural skills acquired at the time.

Today it is managed by the Piacenza Remadiation Consortium.

To remember the strategic importance of the Tidone valley over the centuries, there are many castles, infact it’s possible to say that every town has or has had one. Between all of them the castle of Zavattarello and the Rocca d’Olgisio are particularly impressive.

FIG. Historical photo of construction of Molato Dam FIG. Trebecco lake

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Valley 2 Tidone geographic informations

2.1.2 Rocca d’Olgisio: guardian of the valley

FIG. Rocca d’Olgisio 1

http://www.castellidelducato.it

The castle is an imposing fortified complex placed on a steep cliff at the turn of the Tidone valley and the Chiarone valley in the municipality of Pianello Val Tidone.

It is located on a steep ridge at 564m asl, this height allows a panoramic view on the Po’ Plain and the surrounding valleys.

Defended by six defensive walls, the fortress rests on sandstone rock and harmoniously integrates medieval and Renaissance structures. The stairway

Rocca d’Olgisio is one of the most ancient and evocative fortified complexes of Piacenza, both for its architecture and for the dominant position, from which in the past and still today it dominates the territories of the Val Tidone and from which in the clearest days it is possible to see also the Monte Rosa or the first skyscrapers of Milan. This amazing castle is part of the circuit of the Castles of the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza.1

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Tidone Valley geographic informations 2

of the primitive nucleus as well as the original fortified tower and the whole base is dug directly into the sandstone rock. The complex of the castle includes the oratory, the bell tower, the keep with frescoed halls and a sixteenth-century lookout portico. On the door jamb from the third wall into the courtyard is the motto “Arx impavida” (fearless fortress), this access was equipped until the beginning of the nineteenth century with a drawbridge and protected by a gate grate. Inside the courtyard there is a well, about fifty meters deep, on which legends of secret passages and escape routes from the castle stand.

According to some legends, the castle was founded in the sixth century by Giovannato Miles, father of the Saints Liberata and Faustina. The first written report showing the existence of the fortress dates back to 1037. In 1378, the fiefdom was ceded by Gian Galeazzo Visconti to the knight Jacopo Dal Verme. This family remained its owner until the mid-nineteenth century until the extinction of the Dal Verme family, when Lucrezia Dal Verme married Giulio Zileri. In subsequent property passes, the fortress was completely stripped of its furniture.

During the Second World War, the Rocca was the seat of the command of the II partisan division of Piacenza.

For this reason, it suffered two attacks by the Germans.

Both saw as protagonist the legendary Giovanni Lazzetti, a partisan known in the area as Ballonaio, who succeeded in repelling the enemies only on their first attack. The second time, the Germans 21

FIG. Rocca’s ancient stairs excavated into the arenaria rock

Valley 2 Tidone geographic informations

drove away the partisans and caused some parts of the fortress to collapse.

Since 1979, the complex has been owned by the Bengalli family, who, with considerable efforts,

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continuous commitment and careful restoration succeeded in saving what is now called the most legendary and beautiful castle in the province.2

http://www.roccadolgisio.it

FIG. Rocca d’Olgisio

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2.1.3 The legend of the Sisters Liberata and Faustina

them the greatest courage beating their opponents on the field, would be chosen. Twelve knights presented themselves at the tournament, to which was added mysteriously a dark presence that hid its appearance behind a black robe and a tightly closed helmet.

The thirteenth man, the Prince of Montenero, knew no rivals: his jewels shone more than any other, while his courage and skill were impressive. So, after winning the victory in all the trials, the Prince, that was none other than the devil himself, was preparing to marry the poor Liberata. But when Marcello, in the role of celebrant, showed him the Cross declaiming “In nomine Patris...” Satan, wriggling between flames and clouds of steam, tried to escape by jumping on his horse, but both were swallowed by the deep chasm that had opened in the ground with a long roar and that is still called Pozzo del Diavolo.

After this episode, the two sisters renounced the worldly life forever and retired to pray in the cave that took their name. Praying in this cave on the sandstone crust on which the castle rests, the two girls secretly harbored the desire to become a nun. One day, it seems with Marcello’s complicity, the two girls took gold and jewels with

Legend tells that in 550 AC the founder of the Rocca d’Olgisio was Giovannato, a knight from Genova. He, after a youth dedicated to the art of war, came to seek peace and tranquility in Val Tidone, bringing with him the pilgrim Marcello, who had favored his conversion to Christianity. Here he married a good local girl, without worrying too much about his humble origins. She gave him two daughters, Liberata and Faustina, but unfortunately, she died prematurely.

The two sisters, entrusted to the care of a housekeeper and educated to the religion by the pious Marcello, grew beautiful and full of virtue, and their father wanted them to marry to secure alliances and a strong descendant.

One day the sisters met a talking crow, under whose appearance was hidden the Evil. In magnifying the joys of earthly love, the black volatile convinced the two young women to ask their father to issue a ban for their wedding. Giovannato quickly proclaimed a tournament to assign the hand of Liberata: among the suitors, those who brought the most precious jewels to their dowry and gave 23

Valley 2 Tidone geographic informations

them and fled to Como, where they founded a monastery dedicated to Saint Ambrogio. In Como the two sisters were also protagonists of an exceptional prodigious episode: a nobleman of the city, perhaps possessed by the devil, had crucified his wife. While this was dying, Liberata intervened and saved

The same Giovannato, initially opposed to the vocation of his daughters, then manifested his paternal understanding, to the point of allocating most of his wealth to the construction of the monastery, where the two sisters embraced the Benedictine rule, which was then taking its first steps.3

her by healing her serious wounds

3 “Piacenza Misteriosa�: Grotte e misteri della Rocca d’Olgisio, 13 April 2015, piacenzasera.it

FIG. Illustration of the legend of the Saints

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FIG. Cave of the Saints Liberata and Faustina, located near the castle

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2.2 ANTROPIZATION OF THE TERRITORY The historical remains found in the valley, preserved in the Archaeological Museum of Val Tidone, testify to how the valley was inhabited since the Neolithic period. The first historical information comes from the Roman era, together with the numerous archaeological remains found in many places including: Arcello, Ganaghello, Borgonovo, Trevozzo, Pianello and Piana di San Martino. Some of this vicus are mentioned in the Tabula Alimentaria traianea, a bronze inscription found in the territory of Veleia in the municipality of Lugagnano Val d’Arda.

In the Longobard period, the territory was part of the property of the Abbey of San Colombano of Bobbio and its rich royal and imperial monastic fiefdom.

It was later totally assigned to the Dal Verme counts of Bobbio and Voghera.

In 1504, after the Milanese occupation of the French, the lordship of Castel San Giovanni as well as that of Sarmato were assigned to nobles of Piacenza. The appeal for restitution was not taken into consideration, so on passing through the Farnese they gave the possibility

of gradually annexing to Piacenza almost all the Val Tidone. The County of Borgonovo passed to the Sforza, after the marriage of the son of the Duke of Milan with the daughter of Count Dal Verme and the other lords had to submit to the new lords. Even Romagnese was temporarily occupied by the Farnese, but later recovered by the Dal Verme.

Today the valley is experiencing a phase of economic and social restart, based mainly on the agricultural character, in fact very important is the production of wine, known locally, but which is becoming increasingly popular in Italy and Europe. The flat part of the valley sees the development of craft and industrial areas. In recent years there has also developed a strong activity of tourist reception, especially as a stop for food and wine itineraries linked to the products of the Piacenza area (the three D.O.P. piacentinian products as coppa, pancetta and salame and wines such as Gutturnio, Ortrugo and Malvasia, protected by the D.O.C. Colli Piacentini brand).

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Tidone Valley geographic informations 2

NATURALISTIC ENVIRONMENT: RUPI DI ROCCA D’OLGISIO 2.3 The rocky site of Rocca d’Olgisio falls into a hilly territory located near the Chiarone stream and confined within the perimeter described by the slopes of the geomorphological formation known as “canoey valley”. It is a “suspended” synline, modeled by the differential erosion with a honeycomb structure, more evident in the southern part, built by the sandstones of Ranzano.

This site, thanks to its unique natural features, is part of the European Natura 2000 network, an organized system of areas intended to preserve the biodiversity present in the territory of the European Union and in particular to protect habitats and animal and plant species rare and threatened.4

suitable for the coexistence of animal and plant species.5 There are three habitats of Community interest identified, two of a rocky type and one of a forest consisting of chestnut strips, representing a total of 7% of the area of the site.

“Our everyday life-world consists of concrete “phenomena.” It consists of people, of animals, of flowers, trees and forests, of stone, earth, wood and water, of towns, streets and houses, doors, windows and furniture. And it consists of sun, moon and stars, of drifting clouds, of night and day and changing seasons. But it also comprises more intangible phenomena such as feelings. This is what is “given,” this is the “content” of our existence.”

The rocky area of Rocca d’Olgisio, which covers about 70 hectares of land at an altitude between 298m - 610m asl, has been included among the Sites of Community Importance (SIC) of the province of Piacenza, thanks to the presence of rather diversified habitats, with a vast wooded area where there are rocky outcrops and arid grasslands,

(Christian Norberg-Schulz)

4 SIC IT4010019 Rupi Rocca d’Olgisio, Specific conservation measures, Emilia-Romagna Region, December 2008 5

Natura 2000 sites of Piacenza province, SIC IT4010019, Rupi Rocca d’Olgisio, Provincia di Piacenza

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FIG. Sites of Community Importance of PC Province

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FIG. Rupi di Rocca d’Olgisio map

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2.4 FLORA The imposing rocky outcrop of the Rocca presents naturalistic particularities that make it unique in its kind throughout the provincial territory.

In fact, the strongly permeable sandy substrate and the southern exposure create aridity conditions, favouring the establishment of a vegetation with strong thermophilic characteristics, at least in the most exposed sectors.

Due to its geomorphological nature and exposure, this rocky outcrop is a singular example of a thermophilic floristic island whose microclimatic characteristics have allowed the settlement of species with basically Mediterranean corology: the orchid Aceras anthropophorum, Celtis australis and opuntia humifusa represent in this sense some of the most eloquent testimonies of this prerogative.

6 SIC IT4010019 Rupi Rocca d’Olgisio, Specific conservation measures, Emilia-Romagna Region, December 2008

The area is rather diversified from the point of view of the vegetational environment being affected by a vast wooded area where there are rocky outcrops and arid grasslands.6

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At the arboreal and shrub level, the woodland area is largely affected by the presence of Castanea sativa, Carpinus betulus, Crataegus monogyna, Cytisophyllum sessilifolium, Fraxinus ornus subsp. ornus, Laburnum anagyroides subsp. anagyroides, Prunus spinosa subsp. spinosa, Quercus cerris, Quercus pubescens subsp. pubescens, Sorbus torminalis e Spartium junceum.

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Acidophilic and subacidophilic species dominate at herbaceous level including: Aceras anthropophorum, Carex praecox, Dictamnus albus, Erythornium denscanis, Eupatorium cannabinum, Euphorbia platyphyllos subsp. platyphyllos, Hepatica nobilis, Inula salicina, Leucanthemum vulgare, Lythrum salicaria, Molinia arundinacea, Narcissus poeticus, Ornithogalum gussonei, Primula vulgaris, Trifolium rubens.

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In the rocky zones some allochthonous species bloom,

Tidone Valley geographic informations 2

FIG. Prikckly Pear on the arenaria rock

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Rocky wall plants _ Polypodium vulgare group

such as the ‘cactus’ Opuntia humifosa and Sedum album and other species which well adapt to the life in the rocky walls such as Asplenium trichomanes, astragalus monspessulanus, Echium vulgare and Hedera helix.

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Altitude: 540m asl Exposure: N Substrate: sandstone floor Order: androsacetalia vandellii Class: Asplenietea trichomanis Habitat: Natura 2000 Code 8220 Siliceous rock walls with casmophytic vegetation

Presence of rare species at provincial and/or regional level, such as: Anemone trifolia, Aquilegia atrata, Asplenium onopteris, Carex guestphalica, Celtis australis, Delphinium fissum subsp. fissum, Dianthus seguieri, Galanthus nivalis, Helianthemum apenninum, Ilex aquifolium, Pulmonaria apennina, Stellaria pallida.

The site is characterized by the presence of sandstone outcrops that originate spectacular rock walls that strongly connotate the landscape. The cliffs of the site are mostly exposed in the southern quadrants, while only a small part is exposed to the North.

FIG. Polypodium vulgare aspect on Arenaria di Ranzano wall

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The rocky casmophytic vegetation flaps in the Asplenietea trichomanis class are established only on the freshest walls exposed in the northern quadrants.

The authentic ruphic phytosanitary findings on the exposed walls in the northern quadrants are characterized by the constant presence of the ferns Asplenium Trichomanes and Polypodium vulgare. The latter species may reach high cover values and has been identified to name the cluster.

Among the friendly species there are Hedera helix, Sedum album and fern Polystichum setiferum.

The rocky walls in this area are in a good state of conservation. Exceptions are the rocks at the base of the castle of Rocca d’Olgisio along which develops the road leading to the fortress which are partly colonized by nitrophilous species indicative of anthropic disturbance. The habitat shows no particular evolutionary trends.

Rocky plateau plants_ Sedum album and Opuntia humifusa group Altitude: 530-560m asl Exposure: SSW, SSE, SE Substrate: sandstone floor Order: SedoScleranthetalia Class: Koelerio-Corynephoretea Habitat: Natura 2000 Code 8230 - Siliceous rocks with pioneering vegetation of sedo-Scleranthion or sedo albi-Veronicion dillenii

On compact outcrops of Ranzano sandstone, almost devoid of soil, was found a vegetation which can be classified in the KoelerioCorynephoretea class, grouping the phyto-centeous plateaux rocks poor in 33

FIG. Sedum album and Opuntia humifusa grouop aspect on a rocky plateau

Valley 2 Tidone geographic informations

Chestnuts forest_ Castanea sativa group

carbonates. It is a plant community that develops on compact rock surfaces, from flat to slightly inclined, in which the soil is limited to a thin layer of very fine debris that settles in the concavities. The fitocenosis, distributed on sandstone plateaux, on ledges and rocky surfaces with less acclivity exposed in the southern quadrants, takes its name from Sedum album and Opuntia humifusa, the lithophilic species that most characterize it.

The quota of characteristic entities of KoelerioCorynephoretea is well represented by species such as Silene armeria, Trifolium arvense, Jasione montana, Sedum rupestre, Rumex acetosella. Among the companions, prevails the contingent of festucoBrometea, represented by Xerophyl entities such as Thymus longicaulis subsp. longicaulis, Bothriochloa ischaemum, Asperula purpurea, Helichrysum italicum, Hieracium pilosella. The conditions of exposure (especially subject to wind erosion) determine little evolutionary possibility of the phytopocenosis towards deeper soils on which could be settled both more evolved herbaceous communities.

Altitude: 560-580m above sea level Exposure: NE Substrate: sandstone floor Order: Fagetalia sylvaticae Class: querco-Fagetea Habitat: Natura 2000 Code 9260 Castanea sativa forest

On the slopes exposed in the northern quadrants that develop on sandy substratum there are small coppice woods of chestnuts. These formations are characterized by an arboreal layer clearly dominated by Castanea sativa, to which only Carpinus betulus is associated. The shrub layer is composed

FIG. Chestnuts forest aspect

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exclusively of small specimens of Chestnut and white hornbeam. Also the herbaceous layer is very poor; in it grow acidophilic species such as, in addition to chestnut seedlings, luzula nivea, L. sylvatica subsp. sylvatica and Pteridium aquilinum.

In the specific case, the phytococenosis occupies areas of potential for oak woods, very abundant in the surrounding areas. The dominating aspect of Chestnut is maintained through the periodic yielding; if left to the natural evolution, the phytopocenosis would very probably tend to transform itself into a Turkey Oak forest.

Monte piano outcrops plants_ Coronillo minimae-Astragaletum monspessulani group Altitude: 560-580m above sea level Exposure: NE Substrate: sandstone floor Order: brometalia erecti Class: festuco-Brometea.

Habitat: Natura 2000 Code 6210- dry semi-natural grasslands and bushcovered facies on limestone substrate

It is a vegetational typology of herbaceous type that is affirmed in the situations in which are present exposed surfaces, relatively acclaimed and subject to a’constant erosion, with

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FIG. Coronillo minimaeAstragaletum monspessulani aspect

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superficial soil or little evolved. In these conditions open grassy phyto-centerosis develop, in which the herbaceous cover often does not exceed 50%.

The plant community that has been detected is characterized by a plant cover that reaches a maximum of 30%.

In the floristic count prevail Xerofile species such as Astragalus monspessulanus, Teucrium montanum and Asperula purpurea, Brachypodium rupestre and Centaurea scabiosa. Among the friendly species the constant presence of Achnatherum calamagrostis, a grassy caespitose glareicola testifying to the detritic nature of the substratum, which is in the form of a very fine-grained moth subject to strong erosion.

The detrital nature of the substrate and the strong erosion to which it is subjected determine the scarce evolutionary possibilities of the phytosanitary towards more evolved soils and therefore towards the affirmation of more structured shrub, arboreal or herbaceous communities.

These can at most develop in the less acclaimed portions of slope less prone to erosion and accumulation of debris.

Meso-hygrophytic grasslands plants_ Molinietum arundinaceae group Altitude: 250m above sea level Exposure: E Substrate: marl Order: Molinietalia coeruleae Class: Molinium-Arrhenatheretea Habitat: Natura 2000 Code 6410grasslands with moly on calcareous, peaty or clay-silt soils

In the area between the foot of the rocky outcrops and the Chiarone torrent is affirmed a phytomocenosis characterized by a rather dense cover and a herbaceous layer about 70 cm high, dominated by an arundinaceous

FIG. Molinietum arundinaceae aspect

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FAUNA 2.5

moly.

The slightly prevailing quota for the high degree of coverage that some of them can reach, is that constituted by the entities of the MoliniumclassArrhenatheretea, which includes highly diversified grasslands as regards origin and type of management, but which share some physical and chemical characteristics of the soil, which never reaches too high temperatures and constantly maintains a good availability of water and nutrients. The phytomocenosis has been framed in the Molinion alliance for the presence with high values of coverage of Moly arundinacea and Inula salicina.

Other diagnostic entities identified include Meso-hygrophilic Eupatorium cannabinum and Lythrum salicaria.

Among the companions the most significant contingent is that represented by species of FestucoBrometea such as Dorycnium herbaceum, Asperula aristata and A. purpurea.

The rocky substratum and the south exposure of the outcrop, favour the settlement of a particular fauna. In fact, among the animals of most interest are reported some species lovers of the warm climates such as the hedgehog, the porcupine and a small colony of minor horseshoe. The wooded areas close to the outcrop are regularly frequented by the hawthorn, a species of birds of prey included in Annex I of the Birds Directive, whose nesting is considered likely, while the cavities of Monte S. Martino are regularly frequented during the reproductive period by the lesser horseshoe which constitutes in the summer months a small colony of about 40 specimens, the largest in all the province territory. The species frequents also the rocky cavities of the cliffs of Rocca d’Olgisio and regularly moves along all the rocky outcrops which in its entirety is to be considered fundamental for its conservation. •

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Insects: the presence of two species of insects of great conservation interest, both included in Annex

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II of Community Directive 92/43/ EEC, better known as the Habitats Directive. It is the moth of the ivy (Callimorpha quadripunctaria poda, 1761) and the flying deer (Lucanus cervus L., 1758). The first is a mediumsized lepidopteran belonging to the Arzidi family and considered a priority at European level: within the site, it has been found at the edges of the shrub vegetation that runs along the torrent tinello. The Flying Deer is a large xylophagous beetle of the family of the Lucanids: some males of this taxon have been observed in the oaks located at the base of the sandstone rocks.

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7 SIC IT4010019 Rupi Rocca d’Olgisio, Specific conservation measures, Emilia-Romagna Region, December 2008

•

Reptiles: the reptilian community appears sufficiently diversified, where the presence of the hedgehog of Riccioli stands out, an ophid with strong thermoxerophyl preferences and little common throughout the provincial territory. The peculiar microclimatic characteristics make the area particularly favourable to the presence of this snake whose spread throughout the regional territory still appears little known.

Also present are Zamenis longissimus, lacerta bilineata and podarcis

38

muralis.

Amphibians: due to the scarcity of humid environments in the site there is no relief batracophoon, but it is possible to find specimens of common toad and frog Dalmatian.

•

Birds: the ornitho fauna of the site consists of species characteristic of the hills of Piacenza. It is worth noting the nesting of the peregrine falcon, a species included in Annex I of the Birds Directive, on the rocky walls of the site. This nesting is to be considered a novelty for the area, having not been established in the past.

•

Mammals: the presence of the porcupine among the mammalofauna of the area, that has found in the natural cavities of the rocky outcrop the optimal conditions where to get its dens and to settle stably. Of great interest is also the presence of a reproductive colony of minor horseshoe in the cavities of Monte S. Martino. Also present is the European mole and other rodents such as the shrew and the minor crucible and the white belly.7

Tidone Valley geographic informations 2

FIG. Vineyard inside the canoa valley

39

Valley 3 Tidone geology

3.1 APPENNINES: FOLD LANDSCAPE ORIGINS In the Italian territory, the Apennine area is considered the most representative for the study of geological folded landscapes.

Starting from 200 million years ago, in fact, the movement of the African continental raft (also called Adria or the Adriatic margin) and of the Eurasian plate, (called Sardinian Massiccio Corso) was decisive for the formation of the rocks that currently make up the Apennine chain. In the middle of the Ligurian-Piedmontese Ocean, which separated the African plate from the European one, there existed an elongated series of submarine volcanoes.

A succession of submarine volcanic effusions and the abrupt solidification of the magmatic material released in contact with water made basalt and other materials possible, such as peridotite, gabbro and serpentinite, called the Ophiolitic Association. These rocky materials constituted the oceanic crust, whose continuous expansion increasingly distanced the edges of the continents facing it.

“To the mind of the geologist the landscape becomes alive and speaks to him. Every stone, every form of coast or mountain or valley tells his story [...] Lave and tuffs that speak of disappeared volcanoes, sediments that narrate the extraordinarily varied and complex sequences of their genesis; ditches that recall biological environments of the most varied nature; structures that reveal the effects of formidable thrusts; positions ranging from the mildest mutations to the most daring overlaps and flows; testimonies that take us back to when the peaks were hooded and the valleys filled with ice; forms that attest, and revive, the steepness of masses or attacks of waves or torrents or torrents: it is a whole world that seems to be dead to others, and reveals its perennial life to the geologist.�

(Michele Gortani, A che fa pensare la geologia, 1956)

44

Tidone Valley 3 geology

Later, around 90 million years ago, the great African and European continents began to come closer, strongly compressing these materials, which began to sink under the African margin and merge again. Only some superficial scales separated and settled on the ocean floor where very fine sediments were accumulating.

Once all the oceanic crust had been consumed by sinking, the two great continental plates clashed directly (40 Ma) and the materials deposited on the ocean floor together with the sediments, began a long process of overlapping and overthrusting that geologists call “tectonic stress�. This meant a translation of several kilometers, both above the African margin and above the European one and a strong elevation due to the crustal crumple created by the compression thrusts and, therefore, the emergence from the sea of the mountain ranges, including the Apennines (20 Ma), which has a typical pleated structure.

Subsequently, the Apennine rocks began to be modeled with decision by the atmospheric agents, in particular by the meteoric waters, which organized a superficial network of waterways that still shapes the territory through erosive

FIG. Movement of the African and European tectonic plates FIG. End phase of the AlpineApennine orogene.

Only in the terminal phase of the Apennine orogene we have the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea, with volcanic events in the regions of Tuscany and Lazio and Campania. In the Pliocene on the emerged Apennine chain the phenomena of superficial modeling by atmospheric agents begin to erupt (erosion, transport and sedimentation), while in the sea sedimentation continues on the Apennine front (current Po Valley and Adriatic Sea) FIG. Structural scheme of morphologies related to fold structures (from Bartolini, Geological factors of relief forms. Structural geomorphology lessons Bologna, 2002)

45

Valley 3 Tidone geology

actions and subsequent transport and storage of the previously dismantled material. The ophiolites, incorporated in the marine sediments, as they were thus freed from the surface covering and still now dominate the landscape thanks to their resistant nature.8 The Apennine area is therefore characterized by a series of anticlinal ridges, made up of meso-Cenozoic rocks, mainly carbonate, with syncline depressions interposed, at the core of which Cenozoic terrigens emerge. The hinge areas of the anticlines correspond

to large structural surfaces which, following the curvature of the layers, take on a characteristic “whale-back� shape.

The strong lithological contrast that characterizes the units of the stratigraphic sequence is at the origin of a series of more or less pronounced homoclinal backbones, arranged around the hinge areas. Only rarely do the homoclinal ridges have a significant lateral continuity: in most cases they are instead segmented in series of small reliefs whose unmistakable triangular

8 D. Sacchetti, L. Tezza, Geologia e minerali del Piacentino, Quaderni di Educazione Ambientali, Tipolito Farnese, Piacenza, Dicembre 2005

FIG. Structure of the Canoe Valley in Val Tidone

46

Tidone Valley 3 geology

or trapezoidal prism shape with the tip pointing upwards can recall an iron from which the name it is precisely flatiron.

On the other hand, the syncline structures almost always coincide with more or less broad depressions that reflect the presence of more degradable soils at their core. This case is found in the Ligurian-Emilian Apennines, in the territory of the Alta Val Tidone, where the Chiarone stream cuts across a syncline structure with an arched axis forming a “canoe” valley. The Marne of Monte Piano emerge along the rather thin strip corresponding to the flanks of the morpho-structure, while the Ranzano Formation occupies the nucleus.9

9 O. Nesci, Strutture a pieghe, Università degli Studi di Urbino

47

Valley 3 Tidone geology

3.2 PIACENZA TERRITORY: FROM THE PADANO SEA TO THE VALLEYS

10,12

D. Sacchetti, L. Tezza, Geologia e minerali del Piacentino, Quaderni di Educazione Ambientali, Tipolito Farnese, Piacenza, Dicembre 2005

11

PTCP All. B1.2 (R), La storia geologica del territorio piacentino, a cura di G. Baiguera, Servizio Pianificazione Territoriale e Ambientale Provincia di Piacenza, Dicembre 2008

A few million years ago the Piacenza area still sees the areas that today make up the cultivated plain and hills below sea level. In fact, the Alps and the Apennines contained a large gulf of the Adriatic, a rich sea affected by the deposit of sediments, whose overlap and compression gave rise to the only rocks that “speak Piacenza dialect�, called Padanidi or Neoautocono.

Later, in the period from the Upper Cretaceous period (100 million years ago), to the present day, the deposit of eroded debris and transported to the valley by the watercourses that descend from the emerged mountain reliefs, brought a continuous supply land directly in the sea. In this way over time the volume of the basin was filled, thus forming the Po Valley. 10

olistolites also of considerable size, as in the case of ophiolites.11

The current geological layout of the Piacenza area therefore presents several superficial geological units of sedimentary genesis, mostly of detritus type. Inside the sedimentary units are included rocks of magmatic and metamorphic genesis, in the form of

The younger units instead, continental alluvial type, were put in place in the phase of relative tectonic calm which saw the sedimentary filling of the ancient marine paleo pit (Mar Padano) in subduction towards the European continental plate, currently represented

The oldest units, of turbiditic marine origin, raised and deformed during the tectonic evolution of the Apennine chain, are found in the southern sector of the territory, that is the mountain one. Here, in fact, we can notice the so-called flysh, or submarine landslides that caused the sliding of the marine sediments and that led to the formation of clouds of material, with different granulometry, fluidified by the sea water. The coarser material is deposited instantly where there is the first and sharp slope break, while the load of mediumsized sediments is deposited with much more gradual losses moving away from the base of the slope.12

48

Tidone Valley 3 geology

by the Po Valley (foredeep plain formed thanks to the weight of the mountain ranges that cause the crust to bend and to discharge debris simultaneously in the depressed part).13

13

PTCP All. B1.2 (R), La storia geologica del territorio piacentino, a cura di G. Baiguera, Servizio Pianificazione Territoriale e Ambientale Provincia di Piacenza, Dicembre 2008

FIG. Geological-structural correlation between the Apennine Chain and the opposite Po Valley (from Ori G.G. and Pellegrini M., 1984). The formation of the foredeep plains is due to the weight of the mountain range which causes the crust to flex and the simultaneous discharge of debris (gravel, sands, clays) in the depressed part

49

Valley 3 Tidone geology

FIG. Schematic model of the formation of multiple overlapping layers due to compressive thrusts induced by crustal shortening processes (from Ori G.G. and Pellegrini M., 1984)

50

Tidone Valley 3 geology

The chronological distribution of the surface units is complicated by the phenomena of bending, faulting and tectonic overlapping (mainly in the mountain sector) and by gravitational and digression and terracing phenomena of alluvial deposits.

Predominant features may however be well recognizable in the hillymountainous sector where hard and compact materials, stratified (compacted arenaceous or calcareous) and non (ophiolite) materials prevail, materials consisting of alternations between stone and pelitic levels (flysch), granular cemented materials ( brecce, areniti), consistent marls and clays (argillites). In the plain, on the other hand, there are “loose” deposits, that is, non-lithified, locally cemented or very thickened, deriving from the unraveling of the rock deposits present in the mountain sector, ie gravel, sandy, silty and clayey materials, transported and sedimented by the Quaternary floods.14

conditions also led to the formation of a structural sub-unit, called Epiliguridi, to which rocky outcrops such as those of Pietra Gavina-Valverde and sinform structures of Zavattarello, Trebecco and Rocca d’Olgisio belong, formed in the so-called Ranzano Sandstones.15 To sum up, in the Piacenza area there are several tectonic-stratigraphic domains, to which the geological units mapped in the territories resting on a metamorphic crystalline base belong.

14

PTCP All. B1.2 (R), La storia geologica del territorio piacentino, a cura di G. Baiguera, Servizio Pianificazione Territoriale e Ambientale Provincia di Piacenza, Dicembre 2008 15 Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “Lineamenti geologici della Val Tidone” a cura di Giovanni Braga, pp. 18-19

Below these lithological units there is another structural body, the External Liguridi stratum, consisting of sedimentary rocks, also formed in a submarine environment. Transgressive

51

Valley 3 Tidone geology

FIG. Scheme of the main tectonic domains (listed according to the order of tectonic superposition, from the highest, that is superficial, to the lowest, ie deep): 1. Padano-Adriatic Units 2. Epiligure Succession (with Piedmontese Tertiary Basin) 3/4/5. Ligurian Units (Antola/ Internal / Esternal) 6. Subligurian Unit 7. Tuscan Units 8. Metamorphic Apuan Complex 9. Unit of the Sestri-Voltage Zone 10. Voltri Group Unit 11. Principal buried overshoots The provincial border is in red.

From “Illustrative Notes of the Geological Map of Italy to the scale 1: 50.000 - Sheet 197 BOBBIO� of the Geological Service of Italy, modified

52

Tidone Valley 3 geology

FIG. Schematic three-dimensional block of the northern Apennines.

From Elter (1994) in “Geologicalenvironmental itineraries in the Trebbia Valley�, scale 1: 30,000, Emilia-Romagna Region (2002), modified

53

Valley 3 Tidone geology

54

Tidone Valley 3 geology

FIG. Chiarone calanchi, from the inner part of the canoa

55

Valley 3 Tidone geology

3.3 HIGH TIDONE VALLEY: CANOE VALLEY AND ROCCA D’OLGISIO CAVES The rocks outcropping in the hydrographic basin of the Tidone Torrent have ages between the Mesozoic Era (Jurassic) and the Quaternary Era (Holocene), that is between 180 million and 10 thousand years ago and present geological connotations connected to those of the north-western sector of the Apennine chain. In fact, we note the clear predominance of sedimentary rocks deposited in the marine environment at different times depending on the progression of tectogenetic processes such as terrigene turbidites, underwater landslides and abyssal lowland muds.

The rhythmic sequences of layers with alternately arenaceous, marly or clayey composition and stratiform bodies (flysch) are particularly widespread.

16

Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “Lineamenti geologici della Val Tidone” a cura di Giovanni Braga, pp. 18-19

a continental environment according to the progressive emergence of the geological structures. In the second case instead, the morphogenetic processes were activated in more recent times (Quaternary era) in conditions of definitive emergence and flanked by exogenous and external agents (such as landslides and floods accompanied by the force of gravity) that contributed to the landscape modeling.16 Beginning with the Middle Eocene (about 50 million years ago), above the Ligurian units in the process of deformation and overthrusting on the opposite units, in turn in the phase of sedimentation and deformation, secondary basins were developed, called Epiliguri. These units have been passively transported above the Ligurian ones and are still in an elevated position and in a little deformed condition, giving rise to isolated synclinal plates, placed in the most advanced sectors of the Ligurian substrate: note the area of Rocca d’Olgisio in Val Chiarone, whose morphology is known as “canoe”.

Alongside these geological formations set on rocky companions involved in the various stages of tectogenesis, there are also more recent deposits accumulated in the subaerial environment. In the first case, the shaping processes were activated early (in the marine environment) and then completed in

56

Tidone Valley 3 geology

basin carved into the rock in order to collect the water that naturally filtered through the cracks in the ceiling. But it was not at all a use in the service of the community, but for the purpose of torture: here it seems that the condemned were conducted to be subjected to the torture of the drop on the head. Tied to a pole stuck in the tank, they would have come out only after a horrible death caused by the slow breaking of the skull by the drop of water that fell from the top at regular intervals. It is puzzling that no traces are noticed for the housing of the pole or chains to block the condemned in any way.

Two other caves that bear unmistakable signs of human settlement are the Grotta del Riparo and the Grotta Nera, whose color is due to the soot from the

In the rocky areas bordering the Rocca d’Olgisio, a series of natural caves have been discovered that have been used since the Neolithic times. Inside the cave known as the Cave of the Saints Liberata and Faustina, an engraving showing a complete branch of leaves surmounted by a stylized figure is clearly visible. At the entrance, in addition, two round-shaped holes made in the rock in order to create rudimentary barrier can be clearly seen. Inside, the remains of a series of steps leading to a stone block most probably used as a sacrificial altar are clearly visible; to support this hypothesis, we can also note some inscriptions on the walls, among which we recognize the word “ADE”, or the Greek god of the Underworld.

The cypress cave, better known as the Goccia cave, houses inside a large

57

FIG. Geological Section of Mount Aldone- Rocca d’Olgisio (from Faravelli D., Meisina C., 1997)

Valley 3 Tidone geology

ancient hearths that darkened the walls.

Apparently, the primitive man used it as a dwelling, in fact you can see steps, seats, beds and even a rudimentary oven.

The Coscritti Cave has instead become famous because it was used as a hiding place for those who resisted by Napoleon, at the time of the Kingdom of Italy.

“Mystery is what has driven men to leave the caves, to leave the womb of nature.�

(Stephen Gardiner)

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Tidone Valley 3 geology

FIG. Cave of the Saints Liberata and Faustina, located near the castle

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Valley 3 Tidone geology

3.4 GEOSITE: GEOLOGICAL HERITAGE BETWEEN CONSERVATION AND USE “A geosite can be defined as a location, area or territory where it is possible to identify a geological or geomorphological interest in conservation.”

of rare beauty. Yet these wonderful corners of the world have changed with the passing of geologic time which, era after era, left its indelible mark. “Geosites”, the term with which sites of special geological interest are identified, constitute open books where it is possible to see first hand aspects of the Earth’s evolution otherwise hidden.

Their geological, geomorphological, paleontological, volcanic and geomineralogical peculiarities contain priceless scientific and educational value so if, on the one hand, it is necessary to adopt strategies for their “geo-preservation”, on the other, they constitute a significant tourist attraction.

(W.A.P. Wimbledon, 1996) It is not possible to understand the history of the landscape without knowing the one of the man who shaped it, but it is not even possible to understand the history of man without reconstructing the environment in which he took his steps.

The complex interactions between man and environment are the basis of the formation of the current landscape; the presence and the anthropic activity have conditioned the evolution of the various physiographic elements and in turn the man has responded to the conditionings of the geomorphology modifying his own infrastructures.

“The landscape is always the result of a dialectical relationship between man and nature.”

(J. Brinckerhoff) The geosites are places that present geological aspects of rarity and uniqueness, returning fundamental information for the knowledge of

There are landscapes that looking at them seem to have been there forever, set in the surrounding nature like pearls

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Tidone Valley 3 geology

the territory: rocks, cliffs, waterfalls, gypsum, gullies, meanders, quarries, valleys, caves, mines, springs, outfalls, ... are just a few examples of elements classified as “geosites”, a heritage that contributes to designing the landscape of our territory. In the Tidone valley there is the brachisinclinale in the Ranzano Formation (boat or canoe syncline), whose axis is cut from the Chiarone valley; this structure stands out in an exemplary way in the forms of the landscape, influencing the geomorphological layout of the whole area.

paleontological formations, ...of hydraulic and hydrogeological balance...”.

Regarding the classification of natural areas, the l. 394/91 (art. 2) recognizes as areas to be protected (be they national parks, regional parks, natural reserves) those that contain, among other features, “...one or more physical, geological, geomorphological formations... of international or national importance for naturalistic, scientific, aesthetic, cultural and recreational values... “.17

In Italy many national and regional regulations have as goal the safeguarding and enhancement of environmental assets, often also referring to the protection of geological formations, geomorphological processes, and paleontological associations. Of all the surely worth mentioning is the law on protected areas (l. 6/12/1991 n. 394) in which repeated references are made to the promotion, conservation and enhancement of the country’s natural heritage, in its various forms, among the such as “the physical, geological, geomorphological forms...” (art. 1). Still in the art. 1 we speak of “...conservation ...of geological singularities, of

A careful examination of the situations present in some European countries highlights how the geological heritage represents a significant value in the context of the broader nature conservation strategy.

17

Geologia dell’Ambiente, Periodico della SIGEA, 2/2009 ISSN 1591-5352, Conference proceedings “Geositi, il patrimonio geologico tra conservazione e fruizione“,

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Valley 3 Tidone geology

3.5 GEOPARK, GEOSITE AND ARCHEOLOGY In the last decade, a new strategy has been launched that perfectly interprets the combination of geosites and protected areas, the very close connection between geodiversity and biodiversity. This is the new category of geological protected areas called Geoparchi.

These are areas that have geological and geomorphological elements of particular scientific, informative, educational and aesthetic relevance that have established to work together to identify new strategies and projects aimed at protecting and enhancing the geological heritage.

• cooperate to protect the geological heritage; • promote sustainable development at the local level by enhancing a general image linked to the geological heritage; • promote geo-tourism initiatives; • increase environmental education, training and the development of scientific research in the various disciplines of Earth Science.

Geoarcheosites are places in the territory where human activity has created real monuments over time thanks to the geological features present there.

A geosite affected by human action, becomes a geo-archaeo-site, a reality of transition between naturalness and artificiality, which requires knowledge and protection. The Geoarcheosites can be defined as places of the landscape having high environmental, anthropic, historical-archaeological and landscape interest, in which the geological and anthropic components are its fundamental components and have the same importance.

The Geoparks represent amazing instruments of protection that have been identified to preserve and enhance the geological heritage, understood as a formidable treasure chest in which the signs and testimonies of the past are recorded, a precious and at the same time very delicate heritage. An articulated international network of territories that work to achieve the following priority objectives:

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Tidone Valley 3 geology

Geoarcheosites can also be considered those in which there is a close interaction between monuments and landscape forms, resulting from geology, from the morphological history of the site, and from the works of man.

FIG. European Geoparks network FIG. Columns of Pozzuoli Macellum (Serapeum) in the title page of “Prnciples of Geology�

by Charles Lyell

63

Valley 3 Tidone geology

The geosites are not isolated but in turn inserted into a landscape that, for better or worse, has its own connotation.

Brancucci writes that the various components of the landscape are a “physical entity organized in natural and artificial systems, subjected to spontaneous events and human actions, permeated by cultures, signs and traces of geo-historical stratifications, product of interactions between culture, human action and evolution of natural reality” (Brancucci, 2004).

“Landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from the strata of memory as from layers of the rock.”

(Landscape and Memory, Simon Schama)

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Tidone Valley 3 geology

FIG. Sinclinale of Chiarone: Geosite of regional importance (Brachisinclinale in the Ranzano Formation, boat or canoe syncline), whose axis is cut from the Chiarone valley. ( https ://geo.r egi one.emi l i aromagna.it/schede/geositi/ scheda.jsp?id=2003, foto Bartolini)

65

in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

4.1

THE HUNTER-GATHER ANCESTORS: PALEOLITHIC The Paleolithic corresponds to the most ancient cultural stage of human race and had an enormous duration compared to the successive phases, in fact it started 2 million years ago and ended with the last glaciation (Wurm). The climate was cold and arid, characterized by strong temperature fluctuations that determined phenomena of expansion and withdrawal of glaciers. The appearance of the Italian peninsula was therefore very different from that of today. In the colder periods the island of Elba and Sicily were connected to the peninsula and the Adriatic Sea bathed the Italian coasts near the Gargano.

FIG. Geological changes in the Paleolithic: in pink the emerged lands during the last glaciation, in red the current situation 18

M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 10-11

the plains and by the mixed coniferous forest in the hilly and mountainous areas.

The fauna was also rich, bears, deer, roe deer and wild boar populated the forest environments, while in the areas of tundra near the mountain glaciers it was possible find also reindeer, musk ox, mammoths and woolly rhinoceros.

Under these conditions the economy of modern man, appearing in the Upper Paleolithic, was based on hunting, fishing and gathering. For the first hunter-gatherer bands, the Apennine environment therefore constitutes an intensely frequented area, thanks to the presence of the natural resources represented by the deciduous forests in

70

Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

the advent of Homo Sapiens Sapiens, are especially known in the Val Tidone.

In particular, as Dr. Anna Stevani remembers during the conference “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”19, the aforementioned findings involve three localities, two in the piedmont area and one in the upper valley. The piedmont sites Le Lische near Agazzano and Borgonovo near Boioli locality are located on flat alluvial terraces, while the site of the upper valley, Salenzo, in the municipality of Pecorara stood on a flat paleo-surface at 607m asl.

As reported in “Passeggiate archeologiche piacentine”18 in Emilia Romagna there are testimonies of occupations attributable to the ancient Paleolithic (120,000-90,000 years) and therefore to the evolved types of Homo Herectus, with the finding in Val Trebbia and Val Tidone of double-sided hand axe called “amygdale”, but also some more recent sites attributable to the Middle Paleolithic (90,000-70,000 years) with the presence of Neanderthals.

The artefacts of this period are mainly scrapers and spikes obtained with the chipping technique called Levallois.

FIG. Amigdala from Croara and Rock splinters with Lavallosiana technique, Val Trebbia (Amministrazione Provinciale di Piacenza, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 10-11)

One of the best examples of Piacenza in the area of the Ancient and Middle Paleolithic is the site of Croara near Rivergaro, in Val Trebbia, where in the same area a biface of the end of the ancient Paleolithic and a beautiful point of jasper have been found.

The few later testimonies, attributable to the Upper Paleolithic and therefore to

18

Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “La Val Tidone: una terra abitata fin dalla preistoria. Riflessioni sulla distribuzione del suo popolamento sino alle soglie della romanità” a cura di Dottoressa Anna Stevani, pp. 35

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in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

4.2

POST-GLACIAL HUNTERS: MESOLITHIC At the end of the Wurm, the last glaciation, a slow process led the increase and stabilization of temperatures. This fact determined the growth of a vegetation of conifers and broad-leaved trees even at medium altitudes and a change in the fauna with the disappearance of the great Pleistocene herbivores. The groups of hunter-gatherers adapted their technologies and living habits to the new environmental conditions.

20

M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 10-11

FIG. European mean lithic cultures in the Mesolithic Period (6500-6000 BC)

Fernico, Pecorara, lithic remains were found at altitudes compatible with temporary camps along the hunting trails.

The increasingly specialized lithic industry provided flint chips mounted on wooden supports, suitable for different types of prey. As explained in “Passeggiate archeologiche piacentine”20, on the Apennine ridge, in the high valleys of the Nure and Trebbia (Piani di Aglio, Monte Ragola and Passo dello Zovallo) there are small traces of the summer hunting camps of the last post-glacial hunters dating back to ancient Mesolithic (IX and VIII millennium BC) and many others to the recent Mesolithic (around the VII-VI millennium BC). In Val Tidone instead, near Monte

72

Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

FIRST AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES: NEOLITHIC As reported in “Quaderni didattici”22 in the Ancient Neolithic, Piacenza area was part of the so-called “Vhò di Piadena” group, while the rest of Emilia, with Lombardy and Veneto constituted the territory of the “Fiorano” culture.

In the Complete Neolithic, the culture of “Square-Mouthed Vases” (VBQ), a name that derives from the shape of the typical vessel, is stated in Travo, at Groppo di Bobbio and in the locality of Le Mose, where was found a necropolis with 26 well containing skeletons.

The arrival and the colonization of the oriental populations, coinciding with an arid period that favored the birth of wild grasslands of cereals, introduced in the Po’ Valley before (VI millennium AC), and later also in the Apennine areas (5th millennium BC), new farming and breeding techniques, the creation of stable villages and the production of ceramics and fabrics. The very word “Neolithic”, “new stone age” indicates this technological innovation introduced with the polishing of instruments.21.

4.3

21

Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “La Val Tidone: una terra abitata fin dalla preistoria. Riflessioni sulla distribuzione del suo popolamento sino alle soglie della romanità” a cura di Dottoressa Anna Stevani, pp. 3738

FIG. European mean lithic cultures in the Neolithic Period (4000-3500 BC) 22

Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp. 10-11

FIG. Distribution of the Vhò di Piadena and Fiorano Culture in northern Italy

73

in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

23

M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 15-16

24

Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “La Val Tidone: una terra abitata fin dalla preistoria. Riflessioni sulla distribuzione del suo popolamento sino alle soglie della romanità” a cura di Dottoressa Anna Stevani, pp. 3839

FIG. Map of artifacts from the culture of square-mouthed vessels in the provinces of Piacenza, Parma and Reggio Emilia FIG. Group of recent Neolithic vases from the village of S. Andrea to Travo (M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 14)

As reported by Maria Bernabò Brea and Monica Miari 23, during the recent Neolithic (5th millennium BC) the influence of the culture of ChasseyLagozza led to the construction in S. Andrea di Travo of a large village (1 Ha) with big rectangular houses equipped with grain storage and fireplace. The site also included several combustion structures and long pebble walls.

Near Fiorenzuola, on the other hand, a village was discovered characterized by houses bordered by piles, which seems to refer to the final phase of the Neolithic.

Traces of Neolithic populations in Val Tidone, as mentioned by Dr. Anna Stevani,24 occur at medium-high altitudes, close to rivers and flat lands.

This is the case of Borgonovo in the cemetery area, and in CastelnovoBilegno, but also of Pianello and at higher altitudes as in the case of the Piana di San Martino, where various lithic materials were recovered, and in particular two green stone axes. Other abundant outcrops of fern artifacts have also been identified on Mount Fernico and at Rocca d’Olgisio.

FIG. Excavations of the Neolithic village of S. Andrea in Travo

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FIRST TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATIONS:

4.4

AGE OF COPPER Around the IV-III millennium BC the period that corrisponds to the Age of Copper, important technological innovations took place, such as the appearance of the wheel and the plow and witnessed the spread of metallurgy and new forms of spirituality linked to the stars. Exchanges intensified and the figure of the warrior emerged in the more complex social structure.25

In the Piacenza area, as reported by Maria Bernabò Brea and Monica Miari, the traces of this period are small, and only a few stone finds have been found in Lugagnano and Vernasca and a flint dagger in Pianello. Traces of a settlement attributable to the facies of the “scales ceramics”, widespread throughout the Italian peninsula, were found on the site of Sant’Andrea di Travo. 26

This period was characterized by seasonal settlements, near transhumance routes, ridge passages, water sources.

In Val Tidone, on the other hand, mainly flint objects have been found, such as blades and arrowheads, from the site of Borgonovo at the cemetery, near the village of Bruso and in BilegnoCastelnuovo. Similar artifacts have also been found in Corano, in Case Varesi, in Strà and at Mount Fernico. 27

25

Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp. 13

26

M M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 14-15

27

Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “La Val Tidone: una terra abitata fin dalla preistoria. Riflessioni sulla distribuzione del suo popolamento sino alle soglie della romanità” a cura di Dottoressa Anna Stevani, pp. 40

FIG. Diffusion of metallurgy in Europe FIG. Harrowheads from Corano and Castelnuovo (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp. 13)

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4.5

28

Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “La Val Tidone: una terra abitata fin dalla preistoria. Riflessioni sulla distribuzione del suo popolamento sino alle soglie della romanità” a cura di Dottoressa Anna Stevani, pp. 4041

29 M M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 19-23

FIG. Distribution of the Polada Culture in northern Italy FIG. Castel San Giovanni bronze daggers (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp.

14)

SYSTEMATIC USE OF METALLURGY: BRONZE AGE As explained by Dr. Anna Stevani28, the Bronze Age was a very long and complex age, which lasted from the end of the third millennium BC to the tenth century BC. The bronze, a material so far not widespread, soon became completely integrated into daily and defensive activities (sickles, billhooks, swords...) and into objects for personal care (pins, earrings, razors...), thus reducing the use of stone.

birth to the facies of the Terramare, characterized by vast inhabited areas defended by embankments and perimeter moats.

During the most ancient phase in the areas north of the Po’, the “Polada” culture spread, characterized by villages in wetlands, such as the riverbanks and huts raised on poles driven into the ground. The only evidence of this period in the Piacenza area is due to two bronze daggers with fused handles found on the bank of the Po in Castel San Giovanni.

Later, as reported in “Passeggiate archeologiche piacentine”29, starting from the Middle Bronze Age (16001300 BC), the Emilian territory saw the first phases of colonization which gave 76

Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

“This cultural horizon marked the moment in which anthropic action gained the ability to radically modify the natural landscape. […] The economy was based on intensive farming and breeding, activities that led to a large deforestation and a regulation of water courses. Hence the first great and authentic environmental impact, determined by the imposing deforestation works and the partial modification of the hydrographic network: the rural landscape was born, that is the countryside.” 30 In the Piacenza territory, however, only four terramare have been found (Montata dell’Orto, Colombare di Bersano, Castelnovo Fogliani and Rovere di Caorso) and the rest of the territory belonged instead to the socalled “western aspect of the Bronze Age”, which some scholars believe linked to the formation of Ligurian ethnos. Testimonies of this culture can be found in correspondence of rocky emergencies, such as Pietra Perducca and Groppo di Bobbio in Val Trebbia and the Piana di San Martino in Val Tidone.

30 Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “La Val Tidone: una terra abitata fin dalla preistoria. Riflessioni sulla distribuzione del suo popolamento sino alle soglie della romanità” a cura di Dottoressa Anna Stevani, pp. 41

FIG. Distribution of the Terramare Culture in northern Italy FIG. Localization of the four Piacentinian Terramare

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At the end of the Recent Bronze Age, shortly after 1200 BC, the Terramare area was hit by the political crisis that led to the total depopulation of the Po Valley. The western area does not show a similar crisis and some scholars think about this continuity as the roots of the Ligurian population. In Val Tidone we find evidences of this period nearby Rocca d’Olgisio.

In this panorama fits the site of the Piana di San Martino, sporadically frequented already in the Ancient Bronze Age (2300-1200). More frequent and consistent is the presence in the Final Bronze Age (1200-1000 BC) by the protoligurian cultures.

The Piana site finds similarities on the site of the Groppo di Bobbio, both included in a network of exchanges and connections between the current Ligurian region and Lombardy. Among the materials of this phase there is a significant presence of fine-knit ceramics. 31

31

Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp. 17-21

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THE DECLINE PERIOD: IRON AGE

4.6

In Italy the Iron Age began in the 9th century BC, this was due to the difficulty of melting the metal, which required high temperatures.

In the first period of the Iron Age in the Emilian territory, the testimonies are still discontinuous, while with the Middle Iron Age the number of visitors became more numerous, not only in Val Trebbia and Val Nure, but also in Val Tidone.

Here we found a mixture of Ligurian and Golasecchian cultures, particularly evident on the site of the Piana di San Martino, where materials referable to the Middle Iron Age have been found.

Even here, as in Piana di San Martino, it is not clear if we can talk about living or returning continuity.

From the end of the sixth century BC, we can see the maximum expansion and penetration of Etruscan population also in the eastern areas of the plain, in the Trebbia Valley and in the Val d’Arda, with the emporia, the river ports that allowed commerce.

The invasion of the Etrurian Po’ Valley occurred in the fourth century BC by transalpine Celtic people (Latenian people), attracted by the richness of the plain. This caused the collapse

79

FIG. Golasecchian pendent from Pianello, V sec BC (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp. 24) FIG. Distribution of the Golasechian Culture and other groups in northern Italy

in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

and the consequent retreat of the indigenous populations in the hilly territories with the occupation of pre-existing settlements, such as the Groppo di Bobbio and the Plain of San Martino, where the Ligurian aspects prevail. The Ligurians in fact, taking advantage of the space left by the Etruscans, expanded into the Piacenza valleys, the Apuan Alps and Versilia.

The ethnic characterization in Ligurian style is also evident in the pre-Roman necropolis of Veleia. 32 Many testimonies in the Val Tidone come from hilly sites later occupied by the Romans, such as Arcello, Pianello, Lorenzasco and Case Rebuffi. This suggests a sprawl along the valley, which will be partly maintained after the Roman conquest. 33 32

Meeting “La Valle del Tidone Insediamenti e popolazioni primitive”, chapter “La Val Tidone: una terra abitata fin dalla preistoria. Riflessioni sulla distribuzione del suo popolamento sino alle soglie della romanità” a cura di Dottoressa Anna Stevani, pp. 4445

33

Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp. 24-25

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THE TRANSITION PERIOD: LIGURIANS AND CELTS As Giovanni Brizzi explain34, the history and culture of the populations that inhabited the Po Valley during the transition period between the Iron Age and the advent of the Romans are essentially unknown. It is known, however, that the Ligurians lived on the hills behind Piacenza, one of the most widespread populations in the entire West.

The Ligurian culture, undoubtedly influenced by the culture of the Campi di Urne, the Golasecchiana and the Celtic, is recognized only through some particular finds relating to clothing and personal ornaments, and a particular burial called “a cassetta”.

To remember also is the so-called Lunigiana stelae: these are sandstone slabs representing and relief male or female figures. Their use is not certain, because they have always been found far from the original context, but it is likely that they were part of the burials.

The influence and the Celtic contact were however the most evident and this, together with the linguistic analogies, contributed to avoid a clash between

4.7

the two populations.

34

M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 29-32

FIG. Typiacl Lunigian stelae

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Later, especially after the Hannibalic war, these Ligurian tribes that inhabited the Piacenza mountains could not escape the conquest by the Romans, who aimed to control the passes on the Apennines.

Among the most important Ligurian tribes is to enlighten the Veleiates one (original nucleus of the site of Veleia), while in the area subsequently occupied by the city of Piacenza, it allocated that of the Anari, of Celtic origin. Clastidium (Casteggio), the most important center of the Anari people, was handed over to the Punics by the commander of the Roman garrison at the beginning of the Hannibal war.

FIG. Two fibulas and one Ligurian metal stud from Pianello (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp. 24-25) FIG. Distribution of Ligures and Celtic groups in northern Italy FIG. Ligures and Celts in the Piacentinian area

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PLACENTIA FOUNDATION AND CENTURIATION:

4.8

THE ROMANS The first Roman settlements in the Po’ valley began in 218 BC with the foundation, in a territory inhabited by Gallic peoples, of the twin colonies of Placentia and Cremona. These two colonies wanted by the Senate and by a college of triumvirs headed by Caio Lutazio, were stood one on the left bank and one on the right bank of the Po’ river and had the task of guaranteeing the Romans access to the Transpadana region. However, they also served as a defense against any force breaking through the Alps.

In particular, Piacenza protected the Stradella pass and the road that connected northern Etruria to the Cisalpine, while Cremona as reported

by Tacitus, constituted a bulwark against the Gauls that operated beyond the Po’:

“Propugnaculum adversus Gallos trans Padum agentes et si qua vis for Alpes rueret” (Tacitus, Historiae III, 34).

FIG. Tacitus statue FIG. Roman and Gallic territories between 222 BC-286 AC

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FIG. Trebbia Battle between Romans and Cartaginenses 35

M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 32-37

in Cremona and Piacenza and finally left the region. Piacenza, however, continued to support the Roman forces against Hannibal, up to 200-199 BC, when it was invaded and set on fire

by Amilcare, a Carthaginian official.35

The Roman conquest project was abandoned after the upheavals caused by the Second Punic War and

by Hannibal’s descent. Thus, after the disastrous Battle of Trebbia (218 BC), the defeated Roman legions wintered 84

Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

As reported in Quaderni Didattici36, after 197 BC in Piacenza resources thanks to a new number of Roman settlers who left a territorial and urban structure still legible today. The area dotted with marshes and forests was reclaimed

and centuriated or divided into regular lots to be assigned to the colonists. The Apennine areas, on the other hand, were composed of a mosaic of irregular cultivated areas, alternated with pastures and wooded sections.

85

FIG. Roman centuriation of the territories along Via Aemilia 36

Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks, pp. 26-27

in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

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The construction of two important consular roads was fundamental: Via Aemlia (187 BC), which connected Ariminum with Placentia, and Via Postumia (148 BC), which connected the Ligurian coast (Genua) to the Adriatic coast (Aquileia) passing through the Val Tidone between Placentia and Clastidium.

as that of the Venetian people, but also of Roman communities and of the Latins who they settled in the colonies.

At that time Piacenza already enjoyed latinitas, the Latin law, while in 90 BC with the Iulia de civitate law full citizenship was granted. Starting from 72 BC, with the first governor Cassio Longino Piacenza was organized as a province.

The territory of the colony, which corresponded to that belonging to the Anares in the past, was scattered with secondary villages such as Clastidium (Casteggio), and other centers of Celtic origin, such as Camillomago and Cabardiacum (Caverzago), where the sanctuary of Minerva Medica Memor stood.

The mountain territory was instead populated by Veleiates. After the middle of the I century AD a municipium, a real urban center, was founded: the city was built in the Republican era on a pre-existing Ligures Veleiates settlement, hence the name Veleia. To date, what has been brought to light consists of the forum, the basilica, the baths, a cistern for collecting water and some areas of the residential neighbourhood.38

As Explained in “Passeggiate archeologiche piacentine”37 , in the first years of the second century BC the final surrender of the Celtic peoples took place. However, Cisalpine Italy remained a disorganized province, it was a territory in which the Gallic tribes (which in a short time became Socii) coexisted with allied communities such 87

FIG. Roman main routes 37

M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Aglio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 41-48

38

https://www.retidarte.unipr. it/605-2/il-sito-archeologico-diveleia-romana/

in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

During the conflicts of the civil war of 69 AD, Piacenza was spared, but suffered the loss of its wooden amphitheater located outside the walls. The building that was then the largest in Italy and envied by neighboring provinces, was probably filled with incendiary material to help its destruction.

During the food crisis, as witnessed by the Tabula Alimentaria of Veleia (an imposing rectangular bronze plate representing a sort of mortgage loan offered to the landowners, whose interests were intended for the maintenance of indigent boys and girls, residing in the area where the loan applicants’ funds were located), the Cisalpina was not significantly affected, but on the contrary also grew collateral activities related to the transit and processing of goods such as bricks, yarns and fabrics.

FIG. Plant of Veleia excavation 1775 (https://www.retidarte.unipr. it/605-2/il-sito-archeologico-diveleia-romana/) FIG. Veleia main forum (https:// www.retidarte.unipr.it/605-2/ il-sito-archeologico-di-veleiaromana/) FIG. Tabula alimentaria for an imperial mortgage loan, from Veleia, 2nd century

With the Augustan age (31BC – 14 AC) the valley experienced the greatest development with the blossoming of Vici (villages) like the one near Pianello, consisting of a residential area accompanied by a sector dedicated to craft activities (metallurgy and ceramics processing).

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Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

With the Augustan age (31BC – 14 AC) the valley experienced the greatest development with the blossoming of Vici (villages) like the one near Pianello, consisting of a residential area accompanied by a sector dedicated to craft activities (metallurgy and ceramics processing). Also traces of some rustic villae were founded (Bruso, BilegnoCastelnuovo, Corano, Albareto). In particular in the villa of Arcello, that has had a long life (from the Augustan Age to the V sec. AC), have been founded rooms decorated with colored plaster, black and white paved mosaic, glazed windows and, above all, a private thermal structure. 39

funerary stele of Valeria Nardis, founded in 2001 near the Vicus of Pianello, which has an epigraphic mirror bordered by a frame and surmounted by a triangular decorated pediment, typical of the first Imperial Age (I sec AC). Interesting references to families related to Valeria Nardis were found in the Tabula of Veleia.

Another example of the Late Antiquity is the sarcophagus in red Verona marble, found in the vicinity of Vicomarino and dating from the 4th and 5th centuries AD.40

37 A. Scala, Appunti di toponomastica Piacentina, bacino del Tidone e aree limitrofe, Tip.Le.Co., Piacenza, 2010, saggio Il comprensorio della Val Tidone tra AntichitĂ e Medioevo: strutture insediative, economia, organizzazione religiosa di Eleonora Destefanis, pp. 33-34 38 E. Grossetti, revisione e adattamento G. Ferrari e G. Bolzoni, Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Piccola guida al museo, pp. 18-20

Together with trading and handcrafts, the fundamental aspect characterizing a community life, was that of religion and funerary practices. Some necropolises have been found, as Roman law prescribed, out of the settlements, along the communication routes to auto-celebrate and commemorate the decade.

In Ganaghello of Castel San Giovanni, an incineration burial was discovered in the 90s with a rich collection, typical of the Republican age.

Another notable example is the marble

FIG. Funerary stele of Valeria Nardis, E. Grossetti, revisione e adattamento G. Ferrari e G. Bolzoni, Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Piccola guida al museo

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In the flat area there is a continuation of important sites, such as the San Niccolò di Rottofreno nucleus, or the Malpaga of Calendasco settlement.

Further presences in the Imperial Age are attested by numerous sepulchral finds in the areas of Campremoldo, Gragnano and Sant’Imento, but also by some remains of a roadbed near Strà di Trevozzo (as also underlined by the toponym) and production plants such as the brick kiln found in the Chiarone valley.

41

A. Scala, Appunti di toponomastica Piacentina, bacino del Tidone e aree limitrofe, Tip.Le.Co., Piacenza, 2010, saggio Il comprensorio della Val Tidone tra Antichità e Medioevo: strutture insediative, economia, organizzazione religiosa di Eleonora Destefanis, pp. 35-36

“The site represents for the wealth of data that it has returned and continues to give back, a sort of palimpsest for the history of the population of the area, starting from the formation at the beginning of the 5th century, with masonry houses, a cistern, an oven, which put it among the most interesting testimonies known to date.” 41

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THE ENCOUNTER WITH THE GERMANIC PEOPLES: HIGH MIDDLE AGES Among the barbarians who worked in the Piacenza area, the Alemanni seem to have played a fundamental role.

Contrary to popular belief, they were the fruit of the union of the peoples who inhabited the Elbe area and then settled in the course of the Rhine.

movement on the part of the barbarians. They could not face the battle in the open field, they took refuge in a very dense forest and towards evening they attacked our people by surprise.”

(Historia Augusta, Aureliano, 21.1-3)

In 270 AC they entered Italy together with the Iutungi, seizing Piacenza: the army of the emperor Aureliano, surprised by a night attack, he suffered serious losses. The barbarians later headed south-west following the route of the Via Emilia, looting the territories they crossed. Just past the junction with the Via Flaminia they were repeatedly defeated by the reorganized troops of the emperor near the Metauro river and then near the Ticino.

The Alemanni reappeared in our region about a century later, when by order of General Theodosius, a group of them was installed in the villages around the Po. This area, which coincides with the identified area of Bishop Ambrogio, became one of the chosen venues for barbaric tenants or families of defeated populations. They had the purpose of authentic military colonists, who proceeded to the reclamation and the restoration of the crops, besides the garrison along the main axes of transit.

Piacenza was not explicitly mentioned but, surrounded by the barbarian settlements and included in the list drawn up by the bishop Ambrogio of the places “semirutarum urbium caduera”, that is of the half-ruined cities, probably had the same fate.

“Aureliano wanted to face the enemy army [ed. of Iutungi and Marcomanni] all together, joining forces, but near Piacenza it suffered such a defeat, that the Roman empire almost fell. The cause of this defeat was an unfair and cunning 91

4.9

in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

FIG. Battle of Piacenza, Pavia and others between Roman army and Alemanni (270-271 AC)

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Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

increasingly strong weight of imperial fiscalism, followed by repeated episodes of war and barbarian waves and some calamities natural as recurrent earthquakes and floods. This process of decline of the region from the III century continued steadily and among the most affected areas there appears to have been just western Emilia.

In the 5th century AC the Western Empire was in disarray, and on its throne, there were mostly usurpers operated by the barbarian lords. The army was dissolving, and the control of central power was restricted to Italy only. The real masters of fact were Germanic federated bands headed by Odoacre. They claimed control of one third of the land and, when Orestes refused, captured him and was put to death in Piacenza.

Italy was entrusted to Odoacre, who nevertheless governed only a few years, that is until the defeat in 489 AC by Theodoric, the king of the Ostrogoths.

Thus, the dominion of the Goths began in Italy.42 In Val Tidone as reported by Eleonora Destefanis, at Trevozzo-Case Solari a series of objects of ornament and clothing have been recovered that refer to the Goth and Byzantine culture.43

The Emilia in fact, that in the late ancient reorganization was part of the district of Emilia and Liguria of the Annonaria Italy, for a time had maintained a great prosperity farm. But between 388 and 394 AC, when Ambrogio wrote the letter to Faustinus, the situation had definitely changed.

Even the archaeological data report the same situation: a large number of destroyed agricultural plants (especially along the Via Aemilia) and a qualitative and quantitative drop in goods, a shrinkage of the urban fabric with the depopulation of entire neighborhoods and building activities limited to the reuse of existing. This situation of famine, pestilence and deep demographic crisis was caused by a set of causes: the

93

FIG. St. Ambrose (339-97), c.163339, Matthias Stomer, oil painting on canvas 42

M. Bernabò Brea, G. Brizzi, A. Carini, P.L. Dall’Ag-lio, M. Miari, M.L. Pagliani, Passeggiate Archeologiche piacentine, Edizioni Diabasis, Piacenza, 2004, pp. 48-53

43

A. Scala, Appunti di toponomastica Piacentina, bacino del Tidone e aree limitrofe, Tip.Le.Co., Piacenza, 2010, saggio Il comprensorio della Val Tidone tra AntichitĂ e Medioevo: strutture insediative, economia, organizzazione religiosa di Eleonora Destefanis, pp. 37

in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

FIG. Roman Empire in the age of the Germans

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The long war caused widespread destruction to the peninsula, depopulation of the cities and impoverished the populations, further scourged by a plague epidemic; the occupation of Italy by the Byzantines turned out to be ephemeral given that as early as 568 AC the forces of the Longboards began to decline in the peninsula, occupying vast tracts of it.

The invaders took over Pavia, which became their capital and occupied the entire Po Plain until they expanded their dominion in the South through the foundation of the duchies of Spoleto and Benevento. The defensive plan implemented by the Byzantines made it difficult for the invaders to conquer Piacenza in 570 AD.

The Gothic war (535AC-553AC), was a long conflict between Byzantine and Ostrogoths. The war was the result of the policy of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, aimed at reconquering the Italian provinces dominated by the Ostrogoths of Theodoric the Great. The conflict began in 535 AC with the landing of a Byzantine army in Sicily. Going up the peninsula, Belisario’s forces defeated the goth troops, reconquering many important cities including Rome and Ravenna. The war ended in 553 AC with a complete victory for the Byzantines.

FIG. Invasion of the Italian peninsula by the Byzantine Empire (Byzantines: red arrows, Goths: grey arrow) FIG. Longbards main roads departing from Pavia, the capital of the Kingdom

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in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

Piacenza, which from the end of the 6th century was the seat of a duchy, returns various traces of the Longboard occupation both in the urban center but also in correspondence with the most important road arteries. This is the case of S. Niccolò di Rottofreno (whose toponym recalls a Germanic component), where, along the bank of the Trebbia river, a Longboard necropolis was found. Also, the centers of Broni, Stradella and Castel S. Giovanni have returned signs of Germanic occupation.

FIG. Longbards conquest of Italy in three phases (568 AC, end of VII sec AC, King Astolfo 749-756 AC)

period with new building techniques that make use of wood, flank the discovery of a large quantity of metal objects linked to the installation of a blacksmith’s workshop of the same period. Other materials related to clothing and funerary equipment were found at Albareto di Ziano, Virasco di Borgonovo and Trevozzo. Even the Roman site of Pianello was reoccupied for funerary purposes.

Subsequent attestations will take place following the foundation, at the beginning of the VII century, of the Monastery of San Colombano in Bobbio, whose extensive land expansion was well documented.

At the Piana di San Martino, on the other hand, the re-occupation of the late-Roman dwellings in the Longboard

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In fact, the hilly area rich in fertile lands

From these documents, even in the early Middle Ages, Piacenza area played an important role, not only for its itinerant value, but also for its strong economic potential.

suitable for the cultivation of cereals and viticulture, together with the woods and pastures that allowed breeding, was an essential resource in the economic system. These documents also mention some rich farmhouses located near Borgonovo and at Centora with the list of all the categories of animals and products that belonged to these rich farms, but also lists of wooded areas destined to timber production.

The curtes of Sanctum Fioranum/ Caminata and Montelungo near Ruino are remembered. Even toponyms confirm these activities related to agriculture/ pastoralism, as in the case of Pecorara and Caprile. 44

FIG. S. Colombano Monastry, Bobbio, external cloister FIG. S. Colombano Monastry, Bobbio, Romanesque mosaic of the crypt

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4.10

45

A. Scala, Appunti di toponomastica Piacentina, bacino del Tidone e aree limitrofe, Tip.Le.Co., Piacenza, 2010, saggio Il comprensorio della Val Tidone tra AntichitĂ e Medioevo: strutture insediative, economia, organizzazione religiosa di Eleonora Destefanis, pp. 46-52

THE FORTIFICATION: CENTRAL MIDDLE AGES Between the tenth and eleventh centuries, as mentioned in the essay Il comprensorio della Val Tidone tra AntichitĂ e Medioevo: strutture insediative, economia, organizzazione religiosa45, the construction of spaces for the exercise of seigneurial power, that is, with the phenomenon of encastellation, is expressed in a new arrangement of power and new social roles. The territory of the Western Apennines and the Tidone basin became an area of considerable interest. The landscape underwent decisive changes in these centuries: it became populated with fortifications that responded not only to defence needs in a context of general political and social instability, but also became a material translation of the birth of seigniorial power. This phenomenon involved both secular and ecclesiastical subjects as in the case of the Monastery of Bobbio and of S. Paolo di Mezzano Scotti.

their power in Portalbera, took root in the Val Tidone areas, especially in Nibbiano, where the castle was the center of an imposing patrimony. The change of territory and landscape can be seen in the six courts with castle (Ziano, Nibbiano, Trebecco, Ruino, Illibardi), but also with the presence of a strong element that visually marks the territory: the tower (present in Nibbiano, Trebecco and Illibardi). The territory of Tidone therefore appears as an important area on which interests of different political subjects gravitated, due to the favourable itinerary position (with routes that connected the Po’ Valley to Central Italy and Liguria through the Apennines), but also of power attraction exercised for example by the important market of Nibbiano.

Piacenza, next to the Malaspina family, showed a keen interest in the control of this area, which was secured through the acquisition of fortified areas and alliances with the local lords, to the detriment of the abbey and the bishopric of Bobbio, which up to that

A central role was played by the Gandolfingi family, who after affirming 98

Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

Piacenza also to further consolidate its dominion, in the lowlands put in place the foundation of new villages, as in the case of Borgonovo, founded in 1196 and equipped with a regular rectangular urban layout, a brick fortress, towers and a wall with escarpment and fortified entrances. The Municipality also confronted itself with noble families that exercised the administrative control of the territory, as in the case of the de Fontana family, whose extensive heritage found the most important center in Fontana Pradosa. This site was a center of population attraction, documented by various investitures, by the municipality of Piacenza in favor of people of the same Fontana family.

time they were the main actors in this territory. To this scenario is added the conflict that involves Piacenza and Pavia between 1155 and 1156 AC, with which the municipality of Piacenza manages to acquire control of Valverde, Ruino and Lazzarello. As a result of the Piacenza control, enhancements of the fortification systems were often found, as in the case of Valverde with the construction of a dungeon and two towers in the already existing castle.

On the territory new fortified structures were also established, called caminate, which in the beginning indicated rooms provided with a chimney, but soon identified fortified military buildings.

This is the case, for example, of Castro Novum/Castelnuovo.

FIG. Castelnuovo Castle

Val

Tidone

FIG. Borgonovo Val Tidone Rocca

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in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

4.11

NEW SETTLEMENT SCENARIOS: LOW MIDDLE AGES In the central decades of the thirteenth century, years marked by a complex political landscape, the Val Tidone was an important scenario in which the adventure of Umbertino Landi was inserted. His castles played a leading role around which a daring task of conquering the territory revolves around, but also an attempt to build a noble power over the city and the countryside.

In particular, in the upper valley this control was achieved progressively through a massive acquisition in military terms, but also through economic means (disbursed above all to the Vescovado di Bobbio) for the purchase of goods and castles in the areas of Ruino, Lazzarello, Romagnese, Nibbiano, Caminata, Pecorara, Trebecco, and Zavattarello.

FIG. Gian Galezzo Visconti

the largest center, namely Castel San Giovanni. The site, which already had a parish church and a castrum with a residential nucleus, was reorganized with the construction of the Castellum Sancti Johannis. The term castellum indicates the presence of a protection of the inhabited center through the presence of a moat and other devices that Galeazzo Visconti had built in 1316.

At the end of the thirteenth century, Piacenza also became a dominion in all respects, with the designation of Alberto Scotto defined as “rector et defensor populi civitatis et districtus Placentiae�.

In the same year, a new settlement structure marked the lower Val Tidone: the foundation of what will become

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Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

The village later experienced a considerable demographic expansion attested by consistent assignments of lots within the inhabited perimeter. This expansion, like that of other sites along the Po river, owed their success to the connection with Via Postumia.

Also the wealth of watercourses, whose use was increasingly regulated, was incisive: as in the case of the nearby Parpanese, which was an important strategic center on the commercial and military level. The hydraulic power of the water was very important also for the numerous mills present in the valley, as well as of course for the agricultural forage and breeding activities, which constituted the most profitable components for the economy of the valley, both in the mountains and on the plains. With the 14th century the emergence of the Visconti principality, Piacenza entered the Milanese orbit and saw its political strength strongly reduced to the urban realities of northern Italy. 46

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46

A. Scala, Appunti di toponomastica Piacentina, bacino del Tidone e aree limitrofe, Tip.Le.Co., Piacenza, 2010, saggio Il comprensorio della Val Tidone tra AntichitĂ e Medioevo: strutture insediative, economia, organizzazione religiosa di Eleonora Destefanis, pp. 52-56

in history 4 Piacenza from the biginning to Middle Age

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Piacenza in history from the biginning to Middle Age 4

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Valley in history 5 Tidone from the biginning to Middle Age

5.1 THE PREHISTORY While in America and Asia the dinosaurs reigned uncontested, the Val Tidone did not exist, but at its place there was a strip of deep sea belonging to an ocean, now disappeared, called by the geologists Ligurian-Piedmontese ocean.

In those waters of the Jurassic period lived a multitude of marine organisms.

In a small village along the Tidone river, called Molino Lentino, some fossils belonging to that period were found some years ago47.

47

https://www.piacenzasera. it/2019/01/valtidonenella-preistoria-rotarypremia-gli-studenti-mediaborgonovo/281523/

48

http://www.treccani.it/ enciclopedia/neolitico/

49

Bobbio nella preistoria - il villaggio Neolitico del Groppo, Gian Luca Libretti, Internet site Alta Val Trebbia

Etymologically the term “neolithic” comes from the two Greek words neos, “new” and lithos, “stone”: it was in fact distinguished by significant innovations in the lithotechnics, among which the main one is represented by the use of polishing.48 Other innovations were the introduction of the use of ceramics, agriculture and breeding.

As stated by Gian Luca Libretti49, in Mediterranean Europe the first wave of neolithization came from the sea, with the diffusion of impressed ceramics, decorated with raw pressions obtained

mainly with the shell of the genus Cardium (from which also the nickname ceramica cardiale), on all the coasts of the western Mediterranean, from Liguria to southern France and to Spain.

In northern Italy the variant of the Ligurian ceramic culture established itself on the coast of Liguria in the first half of the 6th millennium BC. At the beginning of the V millennium BC the previous cultural mosaic was replaced by the unified culture of squaremouthed vases, diffused from Liguria to Veneto.

At the end of the millennium the area was gradually influenced by the Chassey culture (in Italy also called the Lagozza culture), originating from France, which ended up replacing the previous culture.

Information on the prehistoric population of the Tidone valley area is consistent starting from the V millennium BC when groups of farmers settle in the valleys.

The materials recovered by the Pandora

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Tidone Valley in history from the biginning to Middle Age 5

Archaeological Association over the years allow us to point out the presence of neolotic villages on the terraces of Tidone, Luretta and Chiarone. Some ceramic artefacts allow us to frame the sites between the middle of the V and the first centuries of IV millennium.

The area of Pianello was inhabited already in very ancient times as evidenced by some polished stone and flint tools, found near the confluence of the Tidone and Chiarone streams, near the present cemetery, and other discoveries in caves near the Rocca d’Olgisio dating back to the Neolithic period.

The transition from the Copper Age to the Bronze Age is marked by the abandonment of cave dwellings often reused as graves, and by the construction of houses in outdoor villages. Evidence of these phases are some bronze objects found at the Piana di San Martino and the caves on the ridges near the Rocca d’Olgisio.

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Valley in history 5 Tidone from the biginning to Middle Age

5.2 THE ROMAN AGE 5.2.1 The road system The arrivals of romans in Pianura Padana (Po plain) in the 1st century BC changed the settlements organization. They started to use the centuriation and to build new infrastructures.

When romans conquered the Po plain they start to build roads to link “Placentia� with the surrounding territories.

FIG. Main connections between the castrum Placentia and its domination 50

Elena Grossetti, L’abitato di Pianello nel quadro del popolamento romano della Val Tidone, Legatoria Tip. Editoriale, Piacenza, 2002, pp. 4

The main arteria was via Aemilia50, built in 187 BC from Marco Emilio Lepido to link Ariminum to Placentia. This street was

built on a previous piedmont itinerary, but improved by romans and reinforced through a system of service structures.

The strength of this infrastructure is identified by crossing the entire Po valley and representing the point of confluence of many routes that lead into the valleys.

The second important road built in 148 BC by Spurio Postumio was via Postumia.

This system, crossing transversely the northern Italy to link Genua and Aquileia.

The direction was not as straight as that of the via Aemilia route due to the different functions performed by these two roads. Via Postumia served in fact for military purposes, linking territories with different natural characteristics and cities that were protagonists of military actions against the Gauls that occupied the Po valley.

Today is difficult to recognize the path of this road because already in I century BC at the end of the conflict losts its importance.

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Tidone Valley in history from the biginning to Middle Age 5

built along the Tidone banks and its tributaries, such as Castelnovo, Pianello, Trevozzo, Chiarone, StrĂ and Case Rebuffi. Through the course of the river Tidone and its tributaries Tidoncello and Chiarone it was possible to penetrate the inland and reach the Passo delle Pianelle which allowed to reach the area of Bobbio in the Val Trebbia that even in the period preceding the great medieval flowering constituted an important road junction for transApennine movements.51 The valley of Tidone was crossed by a series of itineraries, linking the settlement spread in the valley between them and also with the main villages in the plain, but is with the development of the roman culture that the construction of equipped streets takes place.

The roads followed the most comfortable and direct route to connect the various settlements. As the Via Aemilia followed the Apennine piedmont, so the secondary connecting routes were placed in correspondence of the rivers’ courses because they were the most easily practicable way of communication compared to the steep slopes of the hills covered by the woods. In fact, several settlements were

Another method used for communications in the valleys took advantage of the ridges; in this regard, settlements such as Arcello, Montalbo, Montecucco and Vicomarino have been identified.

As far as the flat part of the plain is concerned, the communication routes passed in correspondence of the centuriated system, linking the Apennine routes with the main roads: via Aemilia and via Postumia.

In addition to the via Postumia there was also another path that connected the Tidone valley with Placentia, still visible in some places. This route started from the current Piazza Borgo, passing by via del Castello and descending towards the

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FIG. Pianello Village, I sec BC 51 Elena Grossetti, L’abitato di Pianello nel quadro del popolamento romano della Val Tidone, Legatoria Tip. Editoriale, Piacenza, 2002, pp. 20

Valley in history 5 Tidone from the biginning to Middle Age

Trebbia river up to the current locality of Pistona on the right bank of the river; the traces reappear in Tavernago and Guadernago.52 There are no sure knowledges about the

materials used by romans to build streets in Tidone valley, but for association we can assume that were made by compacted pebbles.

52

Elena Grossetti, L’abitato di Pianello nel quadro del popolamento romano della Val Tidone, Legatoria Tip. Editoriale, Piacenza, 2002, pp. 21 FIG. Itinerary that was linking Tidone valley with Placentia beside via Postumia

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Tidone Valley in history from the biginning to Middle Age 5

5.2.2 Settlement of Pianello Val Tidone The excavations organized in Pianello by Soprintendenza Archeologica dell’Emilia Romagna and Associazione Archeologica Pandora revealed a roman settlement located in the current cemetery of Pianello that was the most important center of the valley (6,7 ha) and was surrounded by a series of rustic villas and productive sites, not just in the flat lands, but also on the hills.

The choice of the location was really careful to the environmental factors since it was located in a flat land at the junction of two rivers, Tidone and Chiarone, but in an elevated position in order to don’t be flooded.

This area was well linked to the appennino (mountain area) through the two rivers Chiarone and Tidone and to the northern flat part of the valley that has been stitch through a system of infrastructure (centuriatio).

This site was already inhabited during Neolitic and Iron Age like the discovery of some stone, bronze and glass objects proof.

Among the stone objects, fibulae dating from the 5th and 4th centuries BC were found, referable to the Golasecca civilization of Celtic origin and a pendant comparable with other discoveries nearby Veleia and in the Saint-Sulpice necropolis in Switzerland.

Among the glass objects instead, fragments of bracelets of different colors have been found dating back to a period between the II and I century BC. These materials are conserved today in the Archeological Museum of Pianello inside the Rocca di Pianello (kind of castle) and inside the permament exhibition organized by Pandora association in the primary school of Pianello.

The settlement of Pianello, inhabited by a Celtic or Celtic-Ligurian community, gradually absorbed the innovations and lifestyle of Roman culture, becoming in turn a driving force for the new civilization.

After the ‘romanization’ of Pianello, due to a positive economic situation and the arrival of new roman colonists, other centers (rustic villa= productive + residential function) were developed, especially during the Imperial Age, in the surrounding like for example Lorenzasco, Arcello, Cascina Borioni, Case Rebuffi,

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Valley in history 5 Tidone from the biginning to Middle Age

Casa Scabbia, Montalbo, Verasco, Corano and Albareto, Castelnovo, Borgonovo, Parpanese.

The ceramic discoveries proof that Pianello had commercial relations not just with the italian peninsula but with the entire roman empire; for example several amphoras (containers for oil and food) from Spain.

After the first moment of prosperity and diffusion of the roman culture, the settlement of Pianello lost its importance and another center placed 1km far starts to become more important: Trevozzo. Is maybe due to this that on the left side of river Tidone a lot of rustic villas have been discovered.

53

Elena Grossetti, L’abitato di Pianello nel quadro del popolamento romano della Val Tidone, Legatoria Tip. Editoriale, Piacenza, 2002, pp. 23

invasion of northern Italy; in this regard we recall the defeat on the river Trebbia of the emperor Aureliano by Hannibal.

From this period the unitary organization of the Roman civilization is breaking up, giving way to the new phase of management of the territory of the Medieval era.53

Thanks to the Tabula Alimentaria of Veleia we learned about the economic crisis underway in the 2nd century AC in the area of the western Apennines. The discoveries made by the Soprintendenza Archeologica of Emilia Romagna show that in this period the settlements are more concentrated in the flat areas and less on the hilly part. At the same time, we can read the passage from the small property intensively cultivated to the large properties of the landlords.

In addition, starting from the III century AC the barbarian peoples begin the

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Tidone Valley in history from the biginning to Middle Age 5

LATE ANTIQUITY AND EARLY MIDDLE AGES 5.3 5.3.1 Geography and road network

Tuscany, to the east from the territory of Parma and to the west from the one that led to Pavia.

The territory that in the Early Middle Ages was headed to the civitas of Placentia was wider than the current one, also including the western part of today’s province of Parma.

From a geographical point of view, this territory was bordered to the north by the river Po, near which the city itself stood, to the south by the Apennine ridge, which separates Emilia from Liguria and

From the mountainous landscape to the south is possible to reach the flatter area of the plain situated at the area of the Po river basin; it can be divided into three parts: the lower plain between the Via Emilia and the Po, the eastern plain at the Riglio, Chero, Chiavenna, Arda, and Ongina rivers and the western plain which includes Tidone, Trebbia, Nure and is characterized by from a particular fertility of the land that made it interesting from an agricultural and settlement point of view.

As for the plain, even the hilly landscape under the geomorphological profile can in turn be distinguished in low and high hills.

The low hill is constituted by the strip that includes the margin of the Apennines and the area immediately in front and characterized by terraced plateaus that slope towards the plain, parallel to the watercourses and delimited on the sides by escarpments of river erosion.

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FIG. Piacenza area in the Middle Ages

Valley in history 5 Tidone from the biginning to Middle Age

The high hill retains some of the characteristics of the previously described area in a more nuanced manner.

The greatest elevation depends on the slope descending towards the North East which is typical of the geological structure of the Piacenza Apennines.

The Piacenza Apennines are characterized by a “comb-like� structure, ie a series of parallel valleys that originate from the main watershed.

The teeth of the comb are constituted by the ridges and have always represented natural obstacles, which can be crossed with fatigue.

Except for the Po river, which flows in a West-East direction, the main waterways run much of their course in a northeastern direction. However, this situation presents exceptions in the lowland area: the most significant examples are those of the Tidone torrent, of the Luretta and of the Trebbia river, which undergo a sharp transition from the North-East to the North in the plain, while the Riglio, Chero and Chiavenna torrents bend towards the East.

54

G. Musina, Le campagne di Piacenza tra VII e IX secolo: Insediamenti e ComunitĂ , PhD Storia Medievale, 2012

waterways became fundamental and the north-south connections between the center of the peninsula and the transalpine regions acquired great importance. The city of Piacenza was located at the crossroads of very important communication axes such as the Via Emilia and the Via Postumia and also stood on a strategic position as regards the crossing of the Po and the Apennine passes to reach Liguria.

The city was connected to the surrounding area by three main roads: the stretch of the Via Postumia towards Pavia, the route that led to the southern area of the city (on the site of the preexisting cardo maximus), and the stretch of the Via Postumia towards Parma. The terrestrial road system interacted with the river system, encountering a series of ports and fords.

In this area along the river Po there were very important commercial ports and, in this period, there flowed an artificial canal called Fosaugusta (Fodesta) which was of vital importance for the inner navigation of the city.54

After the Roman era, the road network collapsed. Faced with this situation the

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Tidone Valley in history from the biginning to Middle Age 5

5.3.2 Rural settlements The settlements located in the western area of Piacenza territory (the lower part of the Tidone, Luretta, Trebbia and Nure valleys) were part of the Placentina fines, while those of the eastern valleys (valleys of the Stirone, Ongina, Arda, Chiavenna, Chero and Riglio rivers) they were part of the district called fines Castellana.

The analysis of the settlement network of the Val Tidone is made difficult by the scarce documentation concerning it and therefore the low density of localized villages is not very reliable.

The localities of which we have a greater attestation were characterized in a rather similar way. Generally, the villages were endowed with a well delimited and rather ample territory, which could have depended on the lower population density of the hilly areas compared to that of the areas close to the city.

As for the settlements on the plains, even those of the hills were affected by fusions, which, however, began belatedly, starting from the last two decades of the 9th century (Pomario, Seliano and Carmiano and Cassiano).

Moreover, compared to the plains, these villages were endowed with more stable communities, precisely because their territories do not seem to have been subject to significant changes.

And even in the case of the merger of loci et fundi of two residential centers, the respective communities remained distinguishable in the following years.

Another distinctive feature of hill sites is the stability of their settlements, which do not seem to have undergone displacements, perhaps because the greater stability from a hydrogeological point of view and the irregular configuration of the landscape inhibited the mobility of the population, unlike that of the flat areas.

In the Val Tidone until the middle of the 9th century there was a high percentage of lands in the hands of small and medium landowners in the area, while the presence of great possessores was felt with a little delay compared to what was seen for the plain , while towards the end of the century the large stately property spread more widely.

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Valley in history 5 Tidone from the biginning to Middle Age

FIG. Settlements on the Piacenza plain and the western valleys (Val Tidone, Val Luretta and Val Trebbia)

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Tidone Valley in history from the biginning to Middle Age 5

It is interesting to note that there are no traces of property belonging to the cathedral, nor to other ecclesiastical entities of Piacenza, with the exception of the basilica of Sant’Antonino, which from the last decades of the century was at the head of various properties both in val Luretta and in val Tidone following some donations.

Unlike what emerges for the plain, the local churches (plebes) were endowed with a certain patrimony concentrated within their ecclesiastical circumscription.

The two main settlements of the Luretta valley were Seliano and Pomario, located between the rivers Tidone and Trebbia in the first hills northwest of the urban center.

The first attestation of the territory of Pomario appeared for the first time in the documentation of a sale of 855 in which a certain Traseberto de Pomario was a witness.

The land view of the Tidone river valley was characterized by a strong presence of goods belonging to the monastery of Bobbio, next to the possessions of local alloders and great possessores of the area.

A trade-in of the year 877 shows the presence in the territories of Arcello and

Lorenzasco (ancient Laurenciassi) of small local landowners.

The village of Argiliano, located in the plain area in front of the Val Tidone, testifies, instead, the presence of great local owners and of people linked to the city of Piacenza.

Concluding, from the point of view of the village society the situation of the western valleys presented itself as favourable for the rural communities, given that it does not signal the presence of strong powers coming from the outside that were imposed within the territories of the single villages , breaking up the internal social balance.

It is possible, therefore, that the various settlements have been able to develop over the course of time of the local elites, able to cope with the great owners coming from the plain and from the city who acquired assets in the area.55

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55

G. Musina, Le campagne di Piacenza tra VII e IX secolo: Insediamenti e ComunitĂ , PhD Storia Medievale, 2012

sites 6 Archeological memory of the valley

ARCHEOLOGICAL FINDS

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Archeological sites memory of the valley 6

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sites 6 Archeological memory of the valley

6.1 PIANA OF SAN MARTINO

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Archeological sites memory of the valley 6

The site is in the municipality of Pianello Val Tidone (PC), placed in an elevated position naturally defended by steep slopes, belonging to the first reliefs of the Piacenza Apennines, at about 500 meters above sea level.

Studies on documents conservated in the archives of the Cathedral of Piacenza have reconstructed for the site of archaeological interest of the Piana di San Martino the profile of a continuing occupation, with various vicissitudes, from the high Middle Ages to the modern era.

The oldest attestations of the existence of the site of the Piana di San Martino, probably occupied for its strategic point and identified with the toponym Ponziano or Castro Ponziano, date back to the years 816, the period of Frankish domination.

numerous pole holes dug on the rock.

The elements found on the site and the numerous traces of holes for poles, allow us to speculate that it was a fortified built-up area, thanks to analogies with other fortified settlements in northern Italy.

The remains are related to two different and well defined historic periods: Prehistoric era and Middle Ages era.

The remains are today conservated in the Archeological Museum of Val Tidone.56

The site is located in a place protected for its landscape value. The first researches were carried out at the beginning of the Nineties, following some ceramic findings on the side of Mount San Martino.

The site is partly delimited by rocky slopes that constitute the natural defense base on which human intervention built a wooden belt witnessed by the

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55

E. Grossetti, Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Archeologia uomo territorio, 2008

FIG. Schematic plan of the archeological site of Piana of San Martino, with the four excavation areas.

sites 6 Archeological memory of the valley

6.1.1 Prehistoric Era

6.1.2 Middle Ages

The site was probably inhabited in the Neolithic period and later in the Bronze Age (2300-1200 BC) the attendance to the site becomes more consistent, especially in the Final Bronze Age (900 BC); this last phase is characterized by materials related to the Proto-Ligurian culture which attest the existence of huts for farmers and hunters.

The testimonies of this period are divided in four different areas: Saggio 1, Saggio 4, San Martino Piccolo and San Martino (base).

Other excavations in the upper part of the site revealed pre-roman materials covered by foundation structures date back to the end of the roman period that affected the older layers on the bottom.

Other discoveries are dated back to the Iron Age mainly from Ligurian culture, but also from Etruscan-Padana culture and Celtic culture. 57

57

E. Grossetti, Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Archeologia uomo territorio, 2008

• Saggio 1 Is located in the center of the site and hosts the remains mainly for residential use dates back to the end of the Roman period (Late Antiquity) and the beginning of the Middle Ages (High-Medieval period). The buildings belonging to this area were divided by a courtyard were the experts found a series of materials belonging to Early History period (between Bronze Age and Iron Age) and Late Antiquity period.

The remains of an environment have come to light (defined as “vano 1”) surrounded by walls, perpendicular to each other. They were built by using stones tied with mortar and arranged to form an external facade with a regular appearance, the same building technique that we can find in the nearby rooms marked as “vano 2” and “vano 3”.

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Vano 1 was a cistern to collect water and snow, guaranteeing the water supply for the site placed in an elevated position and far away from natural sources. Was divided by a wall 60cm wide into two tanks communicating with each other through a stone arch (height 1.45m) and waterproofed with a layer of cocciopesto.

The two underground tanks are 3m deep and the collapse of the vaulted roof of the two rooms is still visible. The water conserve has other evidences in the site, including a basin dug into the rock, with outflow holes, located next to the early medieval church, probably pre-existing to it and not far from the cistern. The same type of hydraulic structure is found a little further downstream from the site, along the ancient path, on a rocky part in which a system of tanks connected between them has been made.

In later times the walls of the cistern already collapsed were cut from the early medieval tombs, which used them partly as parapets of the sepulchral structure. The interior of the cistern in the early Middle Ages was used as a shelter and for small activities, as evidenced by the remains of the fireplace and the ceramic materials of later period.58

For Vano 2 we don’t have many informations since just a corner of the structure is visible, while for the number 3, which is entirely exposed, we have a lot of data; the environment has a trapezoidal shape and the south wall is directly built on a rocky part of the land.

In the interior space, a stratification from the most ancient phase of use to the time of abandonment was kept legible, so it was possible to trace back to its various phases of use: initially a pavement was inserted on the four perimetral walls, placed above a layer of pebbles made of brown soil in which several very small brick fragments were incorporated.

Some interruptions present in the walls, readable as traces of an intervention aimed at making holes for piles of huge dimensions, combined with a layer of soil, rich in carbon, present on all the internal space are the testimonies relating to a second phase of use, during which a hut was installed on the remains of the previous environment.

The hut had a rectangular shape and was hold by stakes that were inserted in the older perimetral walls and arranged for the most part along the inner edge of two perpendicular walls. As for the perimeter walls of the previously built

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58 R. Conversi, E. Grossetti, G. Bolzoni, Edilizia tardoantica nel sito fortificato di Piana di San Martino, Pianello val Tidone, PC

sites 6 Archeological memory of the valley

compartment 3, they were kept for a constant height of about 50 centimeters and reused to form a sort of protective base.

The presence of many objects including hatchets, chisels, a pickaxe, large rings and a saw documents the existence of a blacksmith’s forge.

Close to Vano 3, an artisanal plan has been found, that can be interpreted as an oven for collective use for roasting cereals, later divided by a transverse wall into two parts perhaps reused as fireplace.59

59

R. Conversi, G. Bolzoni, E. Grossetti, Testimonianze Longobarde dal sito della Piana di San Martino, Pianello Val Tidone, Piacenza

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FIG. Vano 1 (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti) FIG. Collapse of the roof (R. Conversi, E. Grossetti, G. Bolzoni, Edilizia tardoantica nel sito fortificato di Piana di San Martino, Pianello val Tidone, PC) FIG. Cistern walls and Medieval graves (R. Conversi, E. Grossetti, G. Bolzoni, Edilizia tardoantica nel sito fortificato di Piana di San Martino, Pianello val Tidone, PC) FIG. Particular of the partition wall and the arch (R. Conversi, E. Grossetti, G. Bolzoni, Edilizia tardoantica nel sito fortificato di Piana di San Martino, Pianello val Tidone, PC) FIG. Two tanks and partition wall (R. Conversi, E. Grossetti, G. Bolzoni, Edilizia tardoantica nel sito fortificato di Piana di San Martino, Pianello val Tidone, PC)

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FIG. Vano 2 (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti) FIG. Vano 3 (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti) FIG. Vano 3, structure and holes (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti)

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FIG. Oven (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti) FIG. Oven (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks) FIG. Oven, particular of the wall that divide it in two parts (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks)

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• Saggio 4 The remains of a church were found in the west part of the area. The external plan is simple and almost square while internally it is more complex, with niches and apses obtained in the thickness of the perimeter walls.

The first use of the church can be dated back to a period before the year 1000, later frequented up until the modern age as evidenced by the numerous coins found here, this church should have been part of an Important itineray since a lot of peregrins were coming here from different cities during the Low Middle Ages (a lot of coins from different cities found here; XII-XVI century).

60

E. Grossetti, Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Archeologia uomo territorio, 2008

In correspondence of the eastern facade a large shaped block of stone was found which formed the support for the altar. In front of it were found the bases of two columns intended to support the roofing system. The church (facing east) was built using natural rock underneath, on which various sections of masonry were set and using the remains of a previous building, of which it is not possible to reconstruct the destination of use, because only a few traces of the foundation of a wall and some parts of flooring were found.60

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FIG. Religious building (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti) FIG. Religious building_particular of the apse and of the base for the altar (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks) FIG. Coins (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks)

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61

E. Grossetti, Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Archeologia uomo territorio, 2008

• San Martino Piccolo The area in located in an elevated position on the east past of the site; this is a strategical point because from this point is possible to have a wide visual the surrounding territory from the plain in the north to the mountains on the south.

During some excavations date back to 2000-2004 the remains of three buildings construction phases have been found.

Today are still visible just the foundations of these buildings.

According to the surrounding remains we can date back to the Middle Ages period these buildings.

Regarding the function of this place we know (thanks to oral tradition) that in this point there was a construction called “torre dei frati” (“tower of the friars”). Thanks to this, the presence of huge foundations and the strategical elevated point of the site we can assume that this building was probably a defensive building for the site.

The ruins of a building (stones linked through the use of pinkish mortar) have been incorporated in a second structure that have a rectangular shape and hosts an apse on the east facade.

The walls of this structure were really massive and made with huge squared stones blocks placed, when possible, on the natural rocky ground below. This structure has been extended as well almost of the double of its dimensions through the addition of a volume with perimetral walls with huge dimensions too. The pavement of this third construction phase, made with mortar and bricks fragments, hosts the holes in correspondence of the internal part of the perimetral walls for the structures that hold the first floor.

The are has been re-covered and kept underground in order to preserve the remains for the future since there aren’t the conditions to keep the area visible in safety.61

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FIG. Particular of the northern wall (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti) FIG. Stone bloks (Museo Archeologico della Val Tidone, Quaderni Didattici Didactic notebooks) FIG. Particular of the western wall (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti)

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62

E. Grossetti, Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Archeologia uomo territorio, 2008

FIG. San Martino Piccolo Base (Il sito archeologico della Piana di San Martino (PC): una sintesi dei risultati acquisiti, Elena Grossetti)

• San Martino Piccolo (base) Located in the access point to San Martino Piccolo.

In this site two perpendicular walls have been found; this structures are made of huge dimensioned and squared stones blocks based on the natural rock soil below.

According to the experts (Elena Grossetti) this structure is datable between the end of Roman period and the beginning of Middle Ages (TardoanticchitĂ ), thanks to the bronze coins datable to the end of the Roman Empire found near this building.

The discovery of a series of different objects like an ax, various chisels, numerous knives, a large quantity of pin, locks and keys, hooks for trunks, a bracket, large buckles, chimney chains, pallets, a complete scale of dishes and a large stone pot, make us think that this building was a recovery in its past function.

One last really importand discovery has been done here: a bronze surface with an ogival shape hosting a representation of Madonna enthroned with the Christ in her arms. A text on this artifact demonstrate that was belonging to the sanctuary of Santa Maria de Rocamador on Pirenei mountains, attended by

peregrins during Middle Ages.

This proof, once again, that the site of San Martino was an important religious location for the peregrins during the Middle Ages.62

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Conclusions Overall, the recovered testimonies can be traced back to a fortified village which, to be better understood, must be placed in the surrounding context.

In fact the site, in addition to being naturally protected by the steep slopes, preserves, in correspondence with the whole ridge, a defense system evidenced by the presence of numerous holes for piling and steps scalped in the rock.

The existence of such a settlement (Brogiolo 1996) finds an explanation in the state of serious political instability that manifested itself starting from the last centuries of life of the Roman Empire.

The site could therefore have been part of a defensive network active during these crucial historical phases and the toponym “Castello Pontiano� (=castle) mentioned as a place of origin of one of the witnesses of a donation of the 816 rogata in the nearby town of Morasco would be a clue.

With the end of the first millennium, past the moments of serious crisis and political unrest, reasons that had determined the frequentation of the site. The population could therefore have moved to a less inaccessible place, at the foot of the

relief covered by woods of the Piana di San Martino, thus giving rise to the locality of Rocca Pulzana and limiting the attendance of the ancient castro to religious reasons connected to the existence of the church and, perhaps, also to reasons of garrison of the territory connected to the existence of the watch tower identified on the San Martino Piccolo.

The sudden abandonment of the area has left many objects of great value, never recovered later; this suggests a sudden and devastating war event, perhaps due to the arrival of the Franks in 773-774 with the consequent end of the kingdom of the Longobards in Italy, but this hypothesis has never been verified by sufficient evidence.

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6.2 ARCELLO

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On a hilly area of Arcello were found Roman tiles and black and white mosaic pieces during plowing.

Under medieval buildings called “The convent”, were discovered foundations of walls formed from roughly squared stones and pebbles. These remains belonged to a rustic villa where the rooms follow one another: one was a porch and the foundation of a squared pillar of 60cm made in local stone Arenaria was found, the next one had a pavement in black and white mosaic tiles, while a third room had an apse.

Excavations later carried out have allowed us to date the various phases of use of the structure: • •

•

a first phase dates back to the Iron Age with stone walls; a second phase, to which belong walls parallel to these of the upper layer, sealed with a layer of light brown soil dating back to the early Imperial Age; of the third phase are partially preserved the terracotta floors, large mosaic tiles and fragments of vases.

FIG. Wall foundations of the 1st and 2nd phase (Archeologia dell’Emilia Romagna1998) FIG. Roman villa, apse room and bricks channel (Archeologia dell’Emilia Romagna1997)

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6.3 PIANELLO VAL TIDONE

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6.3.1 Cemetery The Roman settlement extended over a previous settlement of the Second and Third Iron Age. A prehistoric frequentation of the site was also discovered thanks to the discovery of lithic material including a green stone hatchet.

The ground had to be prepared for the Roman settlement by digging canals and pits to drain the water.

The excavation has brought to light the foundations of two parallel walls in dry pebbles and brick fragments arranged in a north-west south-east direction 21m long and 11,30m distant between them; the space between the two walls was open, crossed by channels and with stone paving and had to be used for work processing as shown by the iron and bronze materials found here.

An oval structure was also found here, made in squared stone blocks date back to the first phase of the Roman settlement (I cent. BC) whose function was probably to be a silos containing agricultural products.

FIG. Oval structure made of stone (Studi 1991-1992) FIG. Oval structure made of stone (Schede di archeologia dell’Emilia Romagna1997)

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FIG. Plan of the roman settlement inside the new cemetery (Studi 1991-1992) FIG. Hole and drainage canalization (Studi 1991-1992) FIG. Wall foundation in pebbles (Studi 1991-1992)

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6.3.2 Scrocchi’s property Inside the Pianello cemetery and in the area around it, was found a settlement of the Late Roman Republican Age/ Proto-Imperial Age that extended for 6.7 ha into the surrounding fields.

The remains found are a well with a diameter of 2m, a gully with a northwest south-east orientation as well as the structures inside the cemetery and a wall with a north-east south-west orientation 7,50m long and 50cm wide that meets another wall perpendicular to it ending with a pillar.

Above these structures an Early Medieval necropolis had been set up. They too are arranged in a north-east southwest orientation and use the underlying Roman structures as a basis or boundary of the areas.

FIG. Detail of the wall structure (Archeologia dell’Emilia Romagna1997) FIG. Channel and well from the Roman period and early medieval tomb (Archeologia dell’Emilia Romagna1997) FIG. Graves n° (Archeologia Romagna1998)

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36

and 37 dell’Emilia

sites 6 Archeological memory of the valley

6.3.3 Cassinellii’s property The structures found in this property on the north of the cemetery are different from those found inside the cemetery.

The remains of this area are part of the housing portion of the Roman settlement: a porticoed courtyard was delimited by two parallel walls running northwest south-east direction interrupted by pillars; the longest wall was placed side by side by a small channel that carried water to the villa.

The foundations of the walls are in pebbles and on top of it another layer of brick fragments.

To the side of the porticoed courtyard, some walls delimited another almost square room of 3.80x4.10m with tile flooring.

FIG. Wall foundation with pillars and channels (Archeologia dell’Emilia Romagna1998)

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TREVOZZO 6.4

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sites 6 Archeological memory of the valley

In this area, located in the east part of the village of Trevozzo, foundations of walls made of roughly squared local stone have been found; these foundations define a quadrangular environment with a cocciopesto flooring. One of the walls is built with a herring-bone technique and the stones are tied with mortar in the upper part, while with clay in the lower one. This settlement can be dated to a later period than the others in the area: II-III century AC.

FIG. Cocciopesto pavement (Schede di archeologia dell’Emilia Romagna)

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CHIARONE 6.5

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The structure of the furnace has a quadrangular plan with rounded edges of 6,95x4,10m and has a central corridor.

The inner part is probably ruined due to landslides, while the outside and seven small arches are well preserved. In the surroundings of the furnace some roman bricks and tiles were found, but no ceramic remains. In the surroundings of the furnace some roman bricks and tiles were found, but no ceramic remains.

FIG. Roman fournace (Studi 19911992) FIG. Roman fournace, east view (Studi 1991-1992) FIG. Roman fournace, south view (Studi 1991-1992)

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151

& 7 Archeopark Natural Park

7.1 YESTERDAY AND NOWADAY Archaeological areas have always been imagined and organized according to the idea of an “archaeological garden”.

Since the eighteenth century, in fact, the romantic image of ancient fragments wrapped in vegetation has become an aesthetic model. The archaeological park in the common imagination has always been the place par excellence of the “aesthetics of ruin” and of the “taste of the picturesque” which had so fascinated the Grand Tours of the 18th and 19th centuries, in which the sublime of nature excited the visitor who saw a non-anthropized nature that took up the spaces of a past urbanization.

“Sometimes it happens to me to meditate on the beauty of the ruins, on their nature of screens behind which one does not see, and it occurred to me to think of ruins that wrapped the buildings” (Louis Kahn)

Today this bucolic taste has diminished in favour of a renewed vision of the archaeological park, no longer a monument-ruin suspended in time and “untouchable”, but as a new liveable public space. To this end, as for the project of Fuksas in Rome, an attempt is made to re-merge between the purely archaeological parts with the grafting of elements of contemporary architecture for the use of the area (panoramic points, services, small exhibition pavilions).

These are transformed into habitable places that serve as a “bridge” between ancient and modern.

Natural parks, in the European context, have always been a widespread and consolidated form of nature protection.

The natural parks were some areas, generally of large dimensions, endowed with exceptional natural values, located in remote contexts, for the most part mountainous, subject to very limited anthropic pressures and in some cases already previously subjected to special management regimes, such as for example hunting reserves. In the past, the

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national park was an expression of the evocation of lost nature, the antithesis of the artificial world, synonymous with the last paradises of the animal kingdom, of wild spaces of a world in which man did not seek to dominate and enslave nature.

“I like ruins because what remains is not the total design, but the clarity of thought, the naked structure, the spirit of the thing.”

(Tadao Ando) Nowadays the reality of natural parks is much more articulated by geographical position, size, environmental characteristics, types of context in which they are inserted, that is no longer isolated, but humanized or even urban environments.

The change of reality is accompanied by a profound change in the concept of nature conservation: • conservation not only of highly natural environments, but also of places and landscapes with naturalcultural values; • conservation and maintenance with innovative design tension for the construction of new relationships

between ecological and socioeconomic needs.

Then we come to the concept of “historical-cultural heritage” aimed not at passive conservation, but at a comprehensive and integrated approach with policies of enhancement and social promotion. 52 “In most cases concerning our country the risk of destruction, of loss of data of significant scientific and historicalcultural interest and the cancellation of important segments of collective memory, does not lie only on the single archaeological or art object, on the single monument or city district: these are emergencies, to which precise legal norms are however dedicated.

The most serious risk is in fact addressed to the sets of all these things, to the overall fabric formed by all these things, variously manipulated and intertwined together by a complex series of historical experiences that, in a different way, have characterized the different local spaces. The spectacle, sometimes extraordinary, of the surviving traces of each of our historical landscapes, was not followed by an equal awareness of what was before our eyes and what was being lost.”

157

52

Riccardo Francoviche Andrea Zifferero, Musei e parchi archeologici.

Quaderni del dipartimento di archeologia e storia delle arti sezione archeologica, Università di Siena, 1997

& 7 Archeopark Natural Park

7.2 THE THREE ACTORS In recent decades we are realizing how important it is to combine the identity of the archaeological park with that of the environmental park: nature in which archeology is inserted has, for all intents and purposes, an anthropological and expository value which is decisive for understanding the identity of the archaeological site. The nature in which man settles and the morphology of the territory, in fact, have characterized his own life since ancient times, from food to the architecture of the settlement.

“The landscape, from an archaeological point of view, is a space of varying extent for a time of varying duration, produced by history. History produces landscapes operating on natural environmental frameworks through human actions. It is the place where the archaeology of the landscape archaeologist and that of the stratigraphic archaeologist are recomposed.�

The creation and composition of exhibition paths within archaeological environmental parks thus becomes a tool to be able to combine these two factors mentioned above, favouring the third actor, the most important, in the didactic and emotional understanding of the entire exhibition.

The three actors, the user who lives the exhibition, the context that welcomes the experience and the path that supports the experience itself and promotes the knowledge of the place, live together in a deep and equal relationship, which sees them all and three protagonists.

-User: is the true protagonist of the experience and the objective of the project, it is the aim of the intervention for which the support and the exhibition organization of the whole is built. From the design point of view the user is the real user of the project, because it is for him that a set of experiences and activities is created which solicit his perceptive sensitivity.

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- Context: is that archaeological garden in which ruin and nature are inserted in symbiosis, a union that today must be regulated, but maintained, because as in the past, it can still be a source of curiosity, attraction and interest on the part of the visitor. Very important is the concept of protection that passes from individual areas to the enhancement of the entire territory: it is a comprehensive and integrated approach which, starting from single objects and parts, identifies the founding and identifying principles of the place and which supports, to the defensive tools, enhancement policies and promotion of local development.

of the route itself and its privileged position make it an experiential protagonist in the user’s visit.

The path thus becomes a support to the experience, favouring the narration of the place, but it also has the role of requalifying and protecting the place in which it is inserted, allowing the user to participate actively and responsibly in the life of the Park, which thus becomes a union between archeology, that is history and anthropology and environment that is life and future.

- Path: is the link between user and context and thus becomes the support for the narration of the place, building an exhibition track for the user himself.

The path can have two purposes: • the first is that the road, the walkway, the pedestrian support is an element of non-protagonist intervention, the only support to a nature or a truly protagonist archaeologicalarchitectural context.

• the second possibility can be identified in cases where the path itself becomes a source of attraction and exposure, where the structure

159

FIG. Scheme from A. Vernizzi thesis “SENTI.nella, Percorsi reversibili per nuove esperienze di visita in parchi archeologici e ambientali”, revisited

& 7 Archeopark Natural Park

FIG. Scheme from A. Vernizzi thesis “SENTI.nella, Percorsi reversibili per nuove esperienze di visita in parchi archeologici e ambientali�, revisited

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8 Architecture & Memory

8.1 TOWARDS THE PROJECT: palimpsest and narration The work of the past, we have been repeating for some time, is like a palimpsest, a stratification of objects, actions, signs that are grafted into a certain place and that mark it indelibly.

These traces must first be known and understood according to the canonical structures of knowledge. This is obviously necessary but, just as obviously, it is not enough.

52

Gianluca Vita, Progettare sull’antico, AA:VV-Aufklarung e Grand Tour, ricerca e formazione per una museografia senza frontiere. Collana Politecnica, Maggioli Editore, 2008

The ancient find alone does not speak, it is mute. To make it talk about itself, you need to write a story and give it a voice again. The remains of ancient architecture are evidence of past eras, signs of the passage of those who preceded us. But the ancient in modernity is nothing but the story of our fathers, and recognizing in stones, bricks and works an ancient social value in which we ourselves reflect ourselves.

The value therefore does not lie in the stones, but in the stories told by those stones. 52

“Acting on the ancient means therefore to juggle in the stratification and overlap of two realities, the material one and the story one. In other words, designing on the ancient is synonymous with questioning and acting in the balance between signifier (the sign, the stone, the ruin) and meaning (the story that is built on the ancient).�

Today there is a very important responsibility with regard to the conservation and display of the archaeological good: therefore, we tend to re-propose past reality in the most genuine and sincere way, immersing the user in a trace that really tells the story. At the same time, however, it is necessary to act and operate, aware that any action is performed on the ancient artifact, it belongs to the ambit of the project.

Even the simple action of cleaning, the removal of sediments and incrustations of time, constitutes a design act. There is no possibility of neutral action, of pure conservation. Even inactivity, simple

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contemplation, is actually a project of knowledge.

Turning instead to a real project of archaeological-naturalistic park it is important to think, plan and set up a good experience that is not limited to a simple visit, but that makes the tourist activity become a study activity, knowledge, understanding of a historical, cultural and anthropological fact. Therefore, there must be structures, even of an extremely simple nature, which allow this type of experience to be inserted into an intrinsic knowledge of the place itself.

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8 Architecture & Memory

8.2 ARCHEOLOGY & ARCHITECTURE: between conservation and construction Archeology (from the Greek αρχαĩος, “ancient”, and λόγος, “speech” or “study”) is the science that studies the human civilizations and cultures of the past and their relations with the surrounding environment, through the collection, documentation and the analysis of the material traces they have left (architecture, artifacts, biological and human remains).

Architecture (from the Greek aρχιτέκτων “architect”) is both the art and the technique of building buildings, often accompanied by ornamental and figurative arts, such as painting and sculpture, which in a certain way can be said to be subordinate and by a constructive character, which in the field of civil constructions or monumental works makes it akin to engineering.

From this definition we can therefore understand that the archaeologist has the delicate task of dissecting, disclosing, discovering, recognizing. It is a work by a precise analyst: it reconstitutes and redesigns, it approaches a deep and disturbing historical nucleus and, subsequently, illuminate men’s past with intense and unexpected light, thus bringing it closer to today’s man.

The architect’s job therefore is to continue, proceed in the human work, continue in the construction, work on the layers of the real, and having awareness must change them and adapt them to new needs.

Together with the archaeologist, the architect thus composes, preserves the ancient scenario, giving it a contemporary usability, through the design of all the actions and structures necessary to tell the story and its context.

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Designing an experience (positive) therefore means realizing the functionalities (services and contents) that satisfy a specific practical need. The “life cycle” of the cultural experience can be divided into six phases: • •

•

• •

•

Prepare: the experience is prepared Attracting: the place where the experience will take place will attract the visitor Suggest: the place suggests/ anticipates the experience that can be lived Living: it is the real experience Remember: the memorability of the experience itself and some objects / memories are built and / or purchased Share: the experience is told and shared

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“To conserve or construct are moments of the same act of conscience, since both are subjected to the same method: preserving does not make sense if it is not meant in the meaning of actualization of the past and building does not make sense if it is not understood as a continuation of the historical process: it is a matter of clarifying in us the meaning of history.”

(E.N. Rogers, Verifica culturale dell’azione urbanistica, in Esperienza dell’architettura, Einaudi, Torino 1958, pag. 318)

To conclude this work, we wish to mention and thank all the people who have contributed, with their support and their work, to the realization of this thesis.

First of all we want to thank our supervisor, professor Sara Protasoni, who in these months of work, has been able to guide us in the searches, in the analysis, in the understanding of the site and in the project developement.

We also thank professor Chiara Locardi who contributed to the progress of the project and its representation.

Special thanks also go to all the members of the Pandora Archaeological Association, in particular Gloria Bolzoni and Gianluca Spina, who supported us with their knowledge of the site and provided explanations, in-depth studies and study material.

Finally a thank, goes to us three colleagues and friends, because through collaboration, determination, ideas and hours of hard work, we have arrived at this small goal, which can be the beginning of a new adventure.

Giulia, DĂŠsirĂŠe, Qilu

Ringrazio infinitamente la mia famiglia che mi ha sempre incoraggiato, appoggiando ogni mia decisione, fin dalla scelta del mio percorso di studi. Senza il suo supporto morale non sarei mai potuta arrivare fin qui.

Grazie a mamma e papà, Grazie a Chiara, Grazie a nonna Carla...e anche ai nonni che non ci sono più, Grazie alla zia Doni, Grazie a Edo per aver sempre cercato di risollevarmi nei momenti più difficili, Grazie ai compagni incontrati durante questo percorso; abbiamo saputo farci forza a vicenda incoraggiandoci, esame dopo esame, arrivando alla fine di questo percorso di cui conserveremo sempre momenti indimenticabili.

Grazie a tutti per esserci sempre stati e per aver creduto in me.

Grazie a tutti, Giulia

Ai miei genitori, che mi hanno dato il loro amore e la possibilità di seguire i miei sogni, alle mie sorelle Natalie e Maria Sofie, che sono la mia forza e la mia casa, alle mie nonne, che mi hanno insegnato la pazienza e la perseveranza, ai miei zii e a mio cugino Gianluca, che mi hanno sostenuta in questo lungo percorso, a Marco, che ha saputo sempre trovare il modo di farmi sorridere, a Marta, complice nel nostro crescere insieme, ai miei compagni di studi, con cui ho condiviso questa esperienza e da cui tanto ho imparato, a Chiara, Bers e a tutti i miei amici che per me ci sono sempre, grazie, dal profondo del cuore, Désirée 值此毕业设计完成之际，衷心感谢我的第一导师Sara Protasoni 一年多来对我的帮助。非常有幸在研二阶段选择了Sara教授的景观设计 课，此后打开了我对景观设计颠覆性的认知世界。在此后的在课题设计、前期调查、逻辑分析、图面表达等各个方面，导师给予了悉心指导和 无私帮助。导师敏锐的洞察力、渊博的学识、严谨的治学态度及忘我的奉献精神，是我永远学习的楷模。 衷心感谢第二导师 Chiara Locardi 在项目设计上给予我们团队很多实践性的建议和意见。 衷心感谢我的队友Giulia Carini和 Desiree Ferrari在这些时光里的陪伴和帮助，相互鼓励，一起克服困难，一起成长。 衷心感谢Piana 遗址保护组织的工作人员为我们提供相关的文献与资料。 衷心感谢我的家人和所有帮助过我的朋友同学，感谢一直以来对我的支持和鼓励。 最后，我要感谢参与我毕设评审和答辩的各位老师，他们给了我一个审视几年来学习成果的机会，让我能够明确今后的发展方向，他们对 我的帮助是一笔无价的财富。我将在今后的工作、学习中加倍努力，以期能够取得更多成果回报他们、回报社会。再次感谢他们，祝他们一生 幸福、安康! 张启路, Qilu