The care of the built heritage of public use. Institutions, regulations and practices in Naples between the Sixteenth and Eighteenth centuries Naples, XVI-XVIII centuries Urban maintenance Walls Public spaces

Among the most ancient institutions in Naples, the Tribunale della Fortificazione (then, Tribunale of the Mattonata e Acqua) managed all matters in the urban area concerning the maintenance of the walls, bastions and towers, the hydraulic equipment - aqueducts and fountains - as well as the jurisdiction of the open spaces from the Middle Ages to the early 19th century. The paper investigates the extensive archival documentation preserved in the Historical Municipal Archive of Naples, with reference to the period from the mid-16th century and the early 18th century, relating to the administrative organization, to the interventions (solicited or imposed) as well as to the numerous engineers and tavolari involved between the first half of the 16th century and 1805 in the planning and the direction of the works. The accurate control on the conditions of the streets and squares, the constant maintenance work of the aqueducts, of the town fountains, the flows of the rainwaters and the road pavements as well as the maintenance of public spaces free from private buildings are fully proven by the rich documentation preserved which was saved by the fire that destroyed a part of the archival documents in 1946. Through the study of Banni, Appuntamenti and Conclusioni, the paper analyzes in a systematic way a research topic which has not been sufficiently explored in a scientific way yet, by deepening the role and the goals assigned by the Vice-royal government to the care of the collective urban heritage and how this last was technically carried out in the baroque period.

Valentina Russo, La «cura» del patrimonio costruito di uso pubblico. istituzioni, regolamenti e prassi a Napoli tra Cinque e Settecento in "STORIA URBANA " 145/2014, pp 5-21, DOI: 10.3280/SU2015-145001