Archaeology as a Renovation Element of the Railway Stations Areas

The construction of the railway lines in archaeological sites featured in a widespread way the European territory. In many cases it was a destructive and upsetting presence. Only recently we have spoken in terms of “living together”, so the issue has been approached in terms of functional but also cultural integration. Today this attitude has become common, above all when the question arises the building of new railway lines. But, in many situations, there is another problem relating to the renewal of railway areas, and in particular the station areas, which is certainly more complex. This new requirement imposes a different perspective on the archaeological areas, subject to past destructions, which inevitably are involved and that can take on a completely different role than in the past. This idea starts from the finding that the overlap of nodal infrastructures levels to the ruins of ancient settlements is not random but derives from the strategic vocation of that particular area, invested over time by different urbanizations and constructions. It is also important to realize that the railways with their stations represent an important potential element of connection between the archaeological areas, which in a wide territory can be interpreted as a network. On this basis, the research identifies some areas of the southern Italian territory, in which these aspects are particularly clear and significant to define a project of an integrated urban and territorial renewal. Through these in-depth analyses, we intend to evaluate the archaeological potential as a factor able to restore the configuration and the functional contents of the station areas and at the same time to give a new impulse and a new role to railway line in crisis or undergoing decommissioning.