Historical "ghost" towns: Sustainable conservation issues in South of Italy

The issue of preservation and "re-development" of historic abandoned towns has taken considerable attention in Italy during recent years. The impossibility to occupy land with new architectures reflects in the trend to activate recovery processes through different models aiming, generally, at an economic return. The intrinsic sustainability of such constructive vernacular heritage, although recognized as a starting-up factor, in rare cases brings to interventions that maximize permanences and upgrade methods in order to safeguard the architectures' tangible and intangible values. The contribution deepens recent experimentations carried out in Southern Italy for the recovery of abandoned little old towns and illustrates the results of an in progress study concerning Tocco Caudio (Benevento), medieval town totally abandoned after the earthquake of 1980. Suggested intervention strategies are measured with the multiple and variable aspects of the concept of "sustainability", trying to reconcile the reasons of conservation with those regarding social and economic benefits.