THE VALORISATION OF AN “INVISIBLE” TERRITORY ALONG THE WATER LANDSCAPE OF THE DRAINAGE: A NATURALISTIC, CULTURAL, MEDIA, SOCIAL ITINERARY FOR A CONSCIOUS TOURISM

The "artificial" landscape of Po Valley is the result of the evolution of many elements which have contributed to its formation: water, soil, cultivations, structures of drainage, daily action and presence of man. If we read it "from above" we understand a map not only "real", but also "cultural": a unicum composed of many identities. The ordinary routine of this horizontal landscape has unique characteristics in the Italian panorama, even though it is less recognizable than more "attractive" landscapes of the Bel Paese. Works and heritage together are the heart of the largest Institution that manages the water of this area (Consorzio di Bonifica dell’Emilia Centrale), whose history began centuries ago, dating back to the sixteenth century and to the first laws of the Kingdom of Italy (1864), extending for 3,113 sq kilometres and covering three regions, five provinces, sixty-five municipalities. The huge route project carried out by the Consorzio last year aimed at tracing the 'network' of water and draining nodes which have contributed to the definition of this cultural landscape, updating roles and functions, disclosing its presence, always seen but never consciously perceived, through a conscious contemporary valorisation. A 90-kilometre itinerary has been formulated, involving 2 regions and 3 large provinces of Emilia Romagna and Lombardy. The project plans the opportunity to get in tune with landscape through a manifold circuit which reads natural habitats of the land, with its artistic and urban resources, intercepting the natural, engineering and architectural heritage of the Consortium. The so-called "low Emilia" has always been a great laboratory of hydraulic engineering and architecture. Landscape appears as crucial interpretative and designing key of cultural and social history, where agriculture and water system are inseparable parts of the valley, with characteristics which can be traced in the drainage network built in the 20s-30s of 1900 on an ancient Roman net. People today are unaware of the draining plants, although at least thirty buildings, built between the half of the sixteenth century and 1940s, have high artistic and architectural features of monumental value. They are perceived as elements in their own right, not attributable to the huge environmental protection of draining system. Iconic and working locations but, at the same time, invisible. They represent, also thanks to their figurative language, a fundamental tool for the interpretation of an artificial territory helping us orient ourselves stylistically, morphologically, chronologically, along a journey which is generally divided into three main intervals: the oldest, from Renaissance to the end of the nineteenth century, the second one, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the end of World War II; and, finally, the contemporary period. They become points of attraction in the itinerary made accessible to a multidisciplinary audience. The 2011 Congress will present the valorisation project carried out with specific interventions developed on six stages spread over the territory, on architectural spaces, natural landscapes, museum fruition, service systems. The itinerary has been planned carefully studying objectives and expected results, monitoring system, sustainability and replicability, relation to local communities, communication aspects. Keywords: drainage landscape, touristic-cultural itinerary, heritage