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The landscape in the revaluation of the Arni’s Valley in the province of Lucca.
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The Arni’s valley is located in the north of Tuscany, in the province of Lucca, in the centre of the Apuan Alps Park, that lays between the apuo-versilian coastal plain and the rivers Magra, Aulella and Serchio.
The Turrite Secca river runs across this valley, skirted by a provincial road, and along it rise the settlements, the most significant among which is the village of Arni.
Around the valley stand the Apuan Alps with their marble’s and stone’s quarries which for centuries have been giving work to the inhabitants of the area, representing a deep sign and a very strong character both in the social order and in the local landscape, creating a significant relationship of dependence between the people and the mountain.
This relationship changed in the last years and people, although the important and significant environment they were born in , prefer to live in the towns along the coast and to leave the villages, in consequence of the crisis in the marble market too, with the result that in the last years the valley has been loosing importance.
It would be very important to rescue the local heritage with a project with the aim to connect all the different significant points, starting from the village of Arni, in order to create a tourist net of tracks to be covered by feet, bikes, horses or off road vehicles.
There are, in fact, some quarries that are still active, which show the work, that offered in the past, and that offers now, the marble for the human creativity.
Some others that are now closed, but however maintain a great fascination as very interesting post-industrial areas.
All these quarries, with the quite abandoned old bridges and churches of the zone, could be transformed and revaluated as heritage landscapes and inserted in a net which could revitalize the area and create new forms of work, with the opening of shops of products of the mountain, little hotels and guide’s services.
This project could also allow to start the interventions of restoration and of preservation of this heritage, a unique huge mix of wild natural and anthropized landscape. -
10th International Seminar of the Forum UNESCO University and Heritage.
Newcastle upon Tyne, 11-16 Aprile 2005
