34 C O N T E X T 1 0 8 : M A R C H 2 0 0 9 Ancona’s historic centre has suffered waves of destruction over its past, yet the reconstructed city looks and feels like a historic town. But there are some negative factors. There is a popular trend to move away from the centre to more spacious suburbs leaving behind vacant properties. There are also more public buildings owned and mothballed by the comune than potential uses for them. The cities of Ascoli Piceno (population 52,000), close to the southern boundary of Le Marche, and L’Aquila (population 73,000), across the Apennines in the Abruzzo region, provided interesting comparisons. Ascoli Piceno is a city of pre-Roman origin whose modern urban form is still shaped by the Roman cardus and decumanus. This includes the four quarters thus formed and the two glorious urban squares (one on the site of the Roman forum). Its defensible site is bounded on three sides by the steep valleys of the rivers Tronto and Castellana.Within the four quarters is a range of detailed urban forms.The most distinctive and earliest of these is a series of very narrow parallel streets known as rue (singular rua), a term found only in three other Italian cities. L’Aquila is a planned hilltop town with a backdrop of mountains. Its foundation was approved by Pope Gregory IX in 1229. L’Aquila has had a complex history, including several rebuildings, one of which followed a major earthquake in 1703 and gave L’Aquila the baroque style prevailing in much of the historic centre. Despite being a medieval new town, the plan for the town echoed the typical Roman arrangement with two axial streets intersecting at the town’s central square and four quarters, each having a large and imposing church and smaller foundations. Plots were laid out and developed on a grid plan, forming a parallel semi-hidden city of courtyards and enclosed spaces. A planning scheme of 1876 provided an arcaded commercial corso running north from the central square. In contrast to the beautiful travertine, widely used for building and paving in Ascoli Piceno, many buildings in L’Aquila are stucco-fronted. The city can look drab in dull weather, but bright sunshine brings the subtle earth colours alive and creates a wonderful polychrome townscape. Urban planning schemes in the 1930s in both cities diverted through traffic away from the historic cores. There is some vehicle traffic in both centres, but generally they echo through the day and evening to the sound of footsteps and conversation. There have been interventions, some quite radical in architectural style, but these have generally been within historic plots and fitted comfortably into the urban grain of the two cities. To the outside eye both cities have retained a strong historic identity. While multiple retailers were present there was little sign that either city was in danger of becoming a clone-town. Suburban development outside the historic cores is of variable quality. For example, commercial development straggling along the Tronto valley to the east of Ascoli Piceno gives an unpromising introduction to the city when approaching from Ancona. L’Aquila provided an insight into the role of the Soprintendenza. This branch of the national culture ministry is the closest thing in Italy to the national heritage agencies in Britain.The Soprintendenza has a more directly regulatory role in granting consents for interventions in designated assets. Regional offices are often in high-status historic buildings: the offices for the Abruzzo region are within L’Aquila’s 16th century Spanish castle. The responsibilities of the Soprintendenza are wide. Sections cover historic buildings and archaeology, and also landscape and ethnography. The Abruzzo Soprintendenza manages historic sites, buildings and landscapes throughout the region as well as museums and their collections. Press comment by Salvatore Settis on the 2004 legislation raised the issue of staff resources within the Soprintendenza. The average age of staff is 50–55. Retiring employees are not all replaced. Settis saw this situation as a potential obstacle to the effective implementation of the 2004 law. The law is also prejudiced by conflicts between national and regional government. In a later article, Settis described cases of national or local government failure to protect historic settlements and their settings from development proposals. He saw this as evidence of official halfheartedness in meeting the aims of the constitution and the 2004 legislation. Verona (population 264,000) stands at what has been, for many centuries, one of the key trading Left: Internal courtyard at Palazzo Fiore, L’Aquila Right: Housing development within the historic city at Ancona
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