La ciudad y sus monumentos, como contraseña de la memoria y de la identidad colectiva

In the age of the liquid and global post-metropolis (Gregotti 2010) the theme of the cultural identity of the architectural heritage is really important. The paper will reflect on the essential meaning of the terms 'inscription', 'identity' and 'memory'. Thinking of the words of Mies van der Rohe - every age has also its greatness - we must rely on these terms to save the value of sense in the contemporary age.The historical city and its monuments represent, in their physical and formal presence, the particular ???inscription??? (Ferraris 1983) that retains and preserves the memory and the sense of the collective identity of every specific urban culture. If the city is for Levi-Strauss "pre-eminently human establishment" (Rossi 1968), in the dialectic between urban structures, artifacts and primary elements of the city; in the being specific support of the monuments and in the ostentation of its form, the city is the true ichnos (track) of the human action in time.