The future of dry stone walls in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park

Filignano (IS) is one of the Molise municipalities located in the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. If one observes an aerial photo of its territory taken in the 1950s, the image would reveal a largely uncovered and terraced territory. One of the characteristics of Filignano are the dry stone walls, used to create roads, terraces, tholos (shelters) and fences: they are signs of the landscape that derive from the Napoleonic era, with the assignment of land and the domestication of the mountain. Even though today the forest has reclaimed the rural areas, these remain crossed by a network of walled roads that extends for a total length of about 80 kilometers.

To this network of walled roads are addressed some operations that the National Park has been able to carry out thanks to a 240,000 euro of funding from the Complementary Operational Program (POC) MOLISE, within the Internal Areas National Strategy (IANS).

"The objective of the intervention is to enhance the widespread cultural heritage of the Mainarde mountains" explains the responsible of the National Park. "For this reason - they continue - we have commissioned an archaeologist expert in GIS (geographic information system) who has detected all the cultural assets, both those linked to the road network and what is found along the routes, such as sites of archaeological interest, farmyards, enclosures (places where cultivation was once done), stone huts, votive shrines (as many as 70), and then reported all the data on a map, to create a cartography and map the assets".

In addition to this aspect, the project took the form of a "school construction site", which in Filignano involved several sections of the so-called system of walled streets. The training was essentially practical and concerned the approach to the degradation of stone buildings and maintenance and restoration techniques. A press release published by the Park reports the impressions of some of the young people involved, such as Matteo, born and raised in Filignano: "When I was a kid, I didn't understand much about stone-laying techniques. During the months of the school construction site, however, I had the opportunity to learn them in a detailed and correct manner. Furthermore, with the theoretical lessons on the history and types of walls, today I can say that, when I find myself in front of a dry stone wall, I no longer see just stones".

"The recovery of knowledge of certain construction techniques is essential for the maintenance of the territory and the recovery of historical landscapes. The Park Managing Authority is aware of this and intends to repeat similar experiences in the future. In the meantime, the Park will publish, also on the basis of this first experience, a manual on restoration techniques for everyone to use" explains the Park Managing Authority.

Thanks to the intervention financed by the cohesion policy, which follows another that in recent years has seen the enhancement of the archaeological site of the Mure di Mennella, 80% of the walled streets have been reopened and are passable. The school construction site, which was held from May to July 2024, saw the participation of 3 young people selected from those who applied. For the National Park, this project "of landscape redevelopment, in addition to restoring the signs of man, also plays an important role in terms of the aspect of hydrogeological stability, with a light intervention that guarantees a future to a unique and unrepeatable aspect of the Molise landscape".