COOPERATION in INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS - Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism)

Title: “Stato da Tera e Western Stato da Mar”: Digital platform for knowledge, conservation and sustainable tourism of works of defense of the ‘Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia’


DESCRIPTION OF PROJECT ACTIVITIES

Brief description:
The Venetian works of defense are a set of military architectures, designed and built by the Serenissima Republic of Venice for the control of both its internal territories and trade routes to the East. A widespread system of fortifications to protect both the Lombardo-Veneto domains on the mainland (the Stato da Tera) and the coastal waters and resorts of Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, …. (the State da Mar). An extensive network of architectural structures - with unique and recognizable features - that from the westernmost outpost of the city of Bergamo, on the Italian Prealps, stretched for more kilometers along the Balkan coast. The Walls of Bergamo and the Forts of Adrian Region provide an exceptional testimony of the influence of Venice, both in the medieval and modern age, in the socio-cultural context of vast internal and coastal territories. They represent an extraordinary example of the transformation of defensive works and adaptation of urban areas following military needs, also for the changed strategies of combat after the advent of 'firearms'. The artifacts, together with the landscape and geo-morphological context in which they are inserted, document the extraordinary operation carried out on a large scale by the Serenissima and, implemented, with an impressive circulation of architects and workers who have experimented with new architectures defended by applying the more daring theories of the treatises of the time. The UNESCO committee, following the proposal for the candidacy of some sites in the serial and transnational project entitled “Venetian defense works between the 16th and 17th centuries”, recognized for some of them the exceptional universal value and inscribed it, on 09 July 2017, in the World Heritage List.

Objectives:
The main objective of the project is the creation of an IT platform aimed at the knowledge, conservation and enhancement of the rich and complex heritage constituted by the defensive system of the Serenissima. A pilot project that wants to pursue the development of an interactive on-line repository for the study, monitoring and use of sites very distant from each other and, at times, characterized by difficult conditions of use. A first experiment focused on the walls of Bergamo and the Venetian Forts in Adrian Region which, also through the definition of intervention protocols and the indication of best practices, is proposed as an important safeguarding and communication tool. Initially planned for the only areas indicated so far, a progressive development is hoped for; a first phase with the inclusion of the other sites already registered in the World Heritage List and, subsequently, the inclusion of other fortified places - closely connected to the system of defense of the Serenissima - not considered in the UNESCO application.
The added value offered by the transnational approach implies, for the institutional subjects involved in the project, the opportunity to share human and economic resources, skills and know-how, operating practices and technological tools. The community partnership, through the involvement of scholars in every phase of implementation, will allow the achievement of a unique and shared purpose. The fortified sites of the Venetian domains of Bergamo and A, although the expression of a single design intention and with common typological and constructive characteristics, have peculiar characteristics due to territorial adaptation in the use of materials and construction techniques. A synergistic and synchronous study conducted on the architectures of the two sites by a transnational study group is, in fact, able to highlight the differences and find the right conservative solutions through the definition of common protocols of protection, intervention and valorisation.

Envisaged methodology:
The Walls of Bergamo and the Venetian works of defense in Adrian Region represent - for their typological similarities, visual integrity and conservation status - emblematic examples of a common transnational heritage. The project of knowledge, conservation and enhancement today takes advantage of the opportunities offered by the continuous development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that allow the understanding and communication of a heritage, hidden for a long time, to an ever wider and varied audience. The digital platforms – the so-called Virtual Museum, have today transformed and expanded the transmission of a vast wealth of architecture and landscape often unknown. The information sharing is at the core of the project entitled “Stato da Tera e Stato da Mar Occidentale” which, as indicated in the objectives, proposes the creation of an online platform for the use of organized and structured information coming from the historical and archaeological analysis and from the geometrical and material investigation conducted with 3D laser scanning and 3D digital photogrammetry methodologies. The contents of the virtual museum will concern, in a first phase, the Venetian Walls of Bergamo and the fortification of Kotor (between the first and second year) and then the sites of Peschiera del Garda, Palmanova and Venice for Italy and Herceg Novi, Budva, Ulcinj and Bar for Montenegro (between the second and third year). The places listed, have already been studied and can be used for study activities under previous agreements still in place with the Italian and Montenegrin protection authorities. Beyond the spaces of architecture, the understanding of the defense system of the Serenissima will also make use of the archaeological study, through the stratigraphic interpretation of the rises on the architectures that will be detected and the re-reading of the existing excavation data.
More specifically, the survey will focus on two thematic fields:
• A first field of investigation will concern the documental research and the defense works will be studied as they are remembered in the documentary sources, regardless of their current state, so to understand their evolution over time also in relation to the interventions on the city and the localities during different governments. This methodological approach will allow the understanding of places that have modified their original use and, at times, retain more evident traces of their past. The collected data will be rewritten and structured in the form most suited to digital implementation on a web platform, the latter designed, to grant a wider dissemination, even in an international version in English. The first scholarship required will be allocated to a young PhD for the implementation of the site.
• A second research address will concern the survey of the architecture and by the inventory for the census and analysis of the surviving signs of the various eras. The 'advanced' survey will be aimed at restoring the analysis for the reading of the degradation and the hypothesis of intervention for conservation, both to the realization of interactive 3D models, movies and computerized animations (to recreate places of the past thanks to the use of Augmented reality). The second scholarship required will be allocated to a young PhD for 3D modeling of survey data.

Expected results
The project is intended as a useful tool for a wide access to the Venetian testimonies in the domains of Lombardy-Venetia and in Adrian Region, also following the registration of some important sites in the World Heritage List, and to constitute a support in the future projects for the recovery of historical, cultural, archaeological and architectural heritage. The initiative also constitutes the necessary starting point for the design of a database that can be used and accessed on-line; to give continuity to the initiative the University of Bergamo and the University Adrian Region will be activated for the constant updating of content and for the active maintenance of news and blogs associated with the portal and, in addition, will promote initiatives (Workshop, Summer School and Conference) aimed at understanding and enhancing heritage.
• In the short term (within the first year) data collection, the study and the digitization of the sources and launching of the relevant campaigns. Two seminars, one at the University of Bergamo and the other at the University of Adrian Region organized with the involvement of local cultural institutions, will be an opportunity for scholars to compare in the light of research independently conducted in the past years.
• In the long term (within the first three years and, it is hoped, also in the future) the creation of a digital platform will be envisaged which will contain the collected and produced materials. An important final conference, planned for two days, will be an opportunity to present the results obtained and allow a comparison among the leading experts in the sector. The publication of a volume (in English, Italian and Montenegrin) will include both reports on the activities carried out by researchers and new reflections on the sidelines of the study.
It is important to underline that the project, from the point of view of pure research, wants to open new lines of study, confirming or refuting a series of conjectures and hypotheses on the relationship between the Venetian defense works in the light of a historical, typological, technological and constructive never adequately explored because not developed in the context of bilateral collaborations.