Danni bellici a Cosenza: la ricostruzione del centro storico tra rinnovamento urbano e tutela degli antichi rioni nel secondo dopoguerra

Also Cosenza suffered bomb damage in August 1943, with the local authorities having to implement alert and emergency measures. The solutions adopted were aimed at preserving historic/artistic assets and associated buildings. To this end, the competent authority implemented preventive measures, followed by a survey of the damage the extent of which was found to be minimal, to the point that the symbolic assets of he city were virtually unscathed. Subsequently, the local authority, prompted by national reconstruction policy, turned its attention to road layout and to overhauling the image of the city. Believing that the war offered a pretext for reorganizing the urban texture on the strength of an official project approved in 1912, it used subsequent expansion plans for operational guidance which regrettably did not result in any official town plans being produced. A missed opportunity which, through partial implementation of the Reconstruction Plan and lack of effective town planning lasting up to the time the Vittorini Master Plan was approved, cleared the way for uncontrolled growth of the city without proper guidance for quality development.

Roberta Filocamo, Danni bellici a Cosenza: la ricostruzione del centro storico tra rinnovamento urbano e tutela degli antichi rioni nel secondo dopoguerra in "STORIA URBANA " 114-115/2007, pp 139-163, DOI: