El sistema de relaciones territoriales entre las fortificaciones del Cilento interior. Una propuesta de estudio a través de SIG

The landscape of the Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park, south of Campania, is dotted with a wide variety of fortresses, castles, towers and all kinds of fortifications. The populations who settled there since the early Middle Ages have left traces of their presence through buildings that, from the initial purpose of independent defense of the individual settlement, have changed over time, especially in the Norman period, in a broader system and structured for the control of the territory. The diversity of the architecture that we still find today, determined by the different origins of the fortifications (sometimes Lombard, sometimes Norman, up to the coastal towers built in the Angevin-Aragonese period to defend against Saracen incursions), however, hides a complex system that connects these artifacts, creating a network that covers large portions of the territory. It is not easy today to recognize such relationships and rebuild this network that has in fact laid the foundations for the current layout of the Cilento landscape. The aim of the research is therefore to study, recognize and map this structure through the use of historical maps and direct relief. Starting from the portion of the territory related to the area of the Ancient Cilento, identified by the Monte della Stella Massif, we intend to start a mapping of the fortifications through GIS in order to provide the tools for the study of the geometries and territorial relations that were established between the different settlements, and how these were placed with respect to the surrounding territory. The use of the territorial information systems will also allow a systematic data collection that will open the way for a subsequent phase of survey and documentation of the artifacts scattered over the territory, through which it will be possible to create a typological abacus of the fortifications related to the different historical phases.