Sicily and Calabria are in the middle of the Mediterranean. They are at the centre of a dense network of relationships between
different cultures. The traces of this incredible story are in some cases striking, majestic and complex architectural masterpieces, in
other cases minute and widespread, myriads of small artefacts, lined up along the ancient paths. The theme of this research aims to
connect, in an organic network, the small artefacts that belong to the oriental tradition and which are present along the Sicilian and
Calabrian eastern coasts.
The phenomenon of oriental monasticism, in fact, affected those regions which, in the quality of the soil, in the morphology of the
streams and valleys, in the vegetation, recalled the territory of Cappadocia and Greece of the time.
The phenomenon, lasting in Sicily and Calabria, is one of the identifying characteristics of these territories.
The architectures that represent the poles of our research, real icons of the landscape, arise in territories distant from the big cities
and urban centres, integrated with the landscape. They are often buildings of great value but small in size and for this reason they
can gain visibility only if considered as a network, a 'constellation' of small poles of attraction.
The research project intends to identify the Byzantine itineraries present in these territories; highlight the correlation between
architecture, territory and society; and enucleate real cultural landscapes.
The project aims to answer three needs:
Facilitating the digital transition for the protection and enhancement of the architectural and landscape heritage in marginal areas.
In fact, the new documentation, obtained with digital tools, is put at the service of new methodologies that go beyond the academic
field and have a real socio-cultural impact.
The coordinated and coherent communication of the themes underlying oriental culture in southern Italy, through a lively and
tangible story built ad hoc on the identified itineraries.
The reconstruction of the identity of the places. The analysed architectural heritage, re-located in the social, educational, productive
context, could generate new culturally enhanced landscape contexts, capable of transmitting the historical memory of the territories,
and of deepening the understanding of the transformation processes of the landscapes and the environment.
The project intends to respond in an innovative and coherent way to the three issues highlighted through respectively:
1) The growth of knowledge on sacred architecture of oriental origin.
2) The experimentation of innovative semantic and communicative models for the research and dissemination of cultural
landscapes.
3) The definition of prototypes and "best practices" for the enhancement of cultural paths in the social, educational and cultural
fields.