The appropriate legal and administrative measures: The Florence Charters and legislation governing the identification, listing and protection of historic gardens in Palermo, Sicily

Abstract

40 years ago, the ICOMOS-IFLA and Italian Florence Charters canonized historic gardens as cultural heritage. However, neither document has legal force, so they are only influential if voluntarily accepted and translated into legal or administrative measures. This paper uses the city of Palermo, (Sicily) to compare the policy recommendations made in the Florence Charters to the international, Italian, regional and municipal policy that effectively governs historic gardens. Because of its autonomous privileges, Sicily governs its heritage differently than the rest of Italy, and in many ways this independence exacerbates problems in historic garden conservation and management. The Covid-19 pandemic has further accentuated these problems, but has also increased the importance of these sites to the public. By looking at the Florence Charters within a wider chain of governance, this paper aims to provide insight on how the Charters could guide more effective policy downstream.