A Territorial Approach to the Production of Urban and Rural Landscape

Abstract

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