Linear Cultural Heritage and Public Space. Urban Walls Between Conservation and Collective Appropriation

The present contribution addresses the issue of heritage-led urban regeneration through a qualitative analysis of Rome’s fortification system, examined as a paradigmatic instance of the transformation of historic defensive infrastructure into a strategic resource for the contemporary city (Connolly, 2015). Three complementary regeneration strategies: promoting of physical accessibility and walkability along the wall circuit; the integrating the fortification system into a network of linear parks; and the supporting of cultural and identity-based appropriation of the surrounding public spaces. From this analytical sequence, a five-principle methodological framework is derived: systemic interpretation of linear heritage, context-sensitive diversification, prioritisation of everyday over touristic use, long-term management sustainability, and participatory governance. Its transferability is understood in analogical rather than statistical terms: Rome compresses within a single continuous structure a range of urban conditions that other European walled cities typically present only in isolated, non-comparable cases; its applicability elsewhere remains an interpretive hypothesis for future comparative research rather than a validated result. Similarly, the observed instances of spontaneous appropriation and community attachment to specific wall sections are read, on the basis of repeated observation, as indicative of a potential for collective identity formation, rather than as an empirically demonstrated outcome, given the study’s qualitative and observational scope. The Roman case thus suggests that linear heritage, when supported by contextually informed valorisation processes, holds significant potential for the regeneration of marginal urban areas and the construction of collective urban identity (Ricci, Mariano 2018).