Reconnecting rural heritage in Cerro al Volturno: strategies for inner areas

This paper is rooted in a research focusing on the territories of the Italian Inner Areas which, according to the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI), consists of fragile landscapes laying distant from the main centres offering essential welfare services. It's 60% of the Italian territory where a quarter of the national population is living. Among the four inner areas in Molise Region, the one with the highest ratio of SNAI-areas to the whole regional area, “Mainarde” inner area partially intersects the National Park perimeter and it hosts a dense network of paths meaningful to the slow tourism. Cerro al Volturno is one of the 13 municipalities within the Mainarde area. The small village dominates the surrounding landscape with the Pandone Castle. The wide municipal area includes 12 hamlets where, on the one hand, the typical features of the rural settlements seems to be almost totally preserved and, on the other hand, a severe depopulation process is going on. Among other vernacular architectures, the pagliare punctuate the surrounding landscape. "The straw route" is a strategic design proposal aimed at defining an itinerary reconnecting the pagliare spread throughout the landscape in Cerro al Volturno by reinventing the centre-countryside relationship, defining new gathering spaces and promoting new forms of rural urbanity.