Lo sguardo vigile. La fortificazione bizantina di Monte Kassar a Castronovo di Sicilia

Abstract

For many centuries, Sicily was a place where civilisations interacted and clashed. Its insular nature and its barycentric position in the Mediterranean have determined, together with the balances between the hegemonic powers, the settlement strategies: cities on the sea during the Greek-Punic colonisation and in subsequent periods characterised by general conditions of peace and equilibrium; cities inland or ‘perched’ in periods of greater fragility, when the main urgency was defence against attacks from the sea or control of the territory. The first real fortifications built in Sicily can be traced back to the period of Byzantine domination, a ‘fragile’ domination that followed the period of Roman rule and preceded the invasion and hegemony of Islamic culture (535-827 A.D.). The few surviving traces of the building activity carried out during the Byzantine rule are mainly located in eastern Sicily; little or nothing has been preserved in western Sicily. The exceptions are a few fortified sites located along the demarcation line running northeast-southwest, at either end of which were the cities of Himera and Selinunte, which historically separated Greek and Punic Sicily. Among these, a conspicuous stretch of fortification recently rediscovered on a rise above the town of Castronovo di Sicilia, in the central section of the demarcation line, stands out for the quality of its remains, having walls and towers that allow a reconstruction. The investigation aims at the acquisition of a digital survey developed with photogrammetric methods, using shots acquired from the ground and from above with the aid of a drone, and with laser scanning methods, using a SLAM scanner. The survey will make it possible to analyse the possibilities of integration between the two methodologies for the construction of a digital twin. The survey data will make it possible to analyse the construction techniques used and to investigate the relations that the fortification establishes with the territory, the reasons for its location, the visual control that it allowed, the possible relationship with other fortified places present on the demarcation line.