Abstract_Storytelling cities: voices from history hidden in the architecture

Cities represent a unique place of cultural stratification, material and immaterial. Their identity also lies in their ability to express various possible narratives, defining itineraries through their heritage. Some traces found in architecture can suggest keys to interpreting such uniqueness in history, traditions, and memory. Graffiti is commonly understood as a social and cultural manifestation of mural painting based on expressing one’s creativity. Graffiti, understood not as a specific social movement, consists of the general desire to convey any information over a material surface. This specific activity arose in antiquity. Inscriptions through engravings, epigraphs, and epitaphs identify people’s desire to preserve their voices and thoughts over time, handing them down to future people and using architecture as a sub-layer. The rediscovery of these sources from history thus becomes an exciting topic, not only to give back a voice to those who reported traces but also to recover an intangible heritage identifying place and history. The research project is developed within Rome, a place characterized by deep cultural stratification. The activity aims to map some inscriptions and build narrative itineraries throughout the city, starting from a study of the presence of these particular traces within the architecture. Through these routes, it will be possible to give voice again to a past and an intangible culture that characterizes those places, rediscovering an intangible heritage stratified and hidden in the city.