A necessary restoration for the traditional and historical buildings in Volla plain (Naples, Italy)

摘要

Volla plain, a strip of plain sited between Naples and the Vesuvius, in the past was ploughed by the waters of the Sebeto river (no longer existing) and by many other water courses; it has always presented all the typical aspects of a swamp, and a great fertility. This plain has always been used by men for several activities: agriculture, which produced mainly vegetables, was flourishing; watermills for the production of flour increased to a very lucrative industry; game was plentiful (in XVIII century this area was a hunt reserve for the king Ferdinand of Bourbon). For centuries (between the XIII and the XX) reclaiming operations have gone on, trying to control the waters that flowed from the numerous subterranean sources and aquifers, to gain more land to agriculture and to defeat mortal malaria. But only in the last 50 years has this area completely lost its original aspect, because of the quick and absurd urbanization of the oriental Neapolitan hinterland, the partial industrialization of traditionally rural lands and most of all because of the huge water pick-ups from the subterranean sources and aquifers which fed the water courses vivifying the plain. Nevertheless, the site still keeps many elements of an environmental and cultural value that would be worth preserving and improving for a sustainable development of the whole area: among them a lot of traditional and historical buildings, mostly farmhouses but also some remarkable monuments, which are in a state of complete decay and ruin. Nobiliary mansions, a XVI century building and also a XVIII century royal hunt lodge are presently completely neglected. Their restoration and their adaptation to new uses of a receptive kind, could be part of a larger plan of recovering of this area, not only from an environmental and cultural, but also from an economical and social point of view.