Built heritage and water resources in the historical tanneries of Solofra. Restoration and enhancement

The paper aims to provide methodological strategies for Restoration and Reuse of the old tanneries of Solofra in Campania. A built heritage with high structural and typological draws from the water the primary source of livelihood. The architectural complex for the leather tanning of Solofra, built in the sixteenth century in a district of the city, called Toppolo, represents, today, the tangible heritage of the historical identity of Solofra and deserves to be preserved and enhanced. The birth and development of tanning activity in Solofra depend on the position of the town, near pastoral paths, forests and waterways. The leather tanning, according to the traditional method, requires, in fact, a considerable amount of water that in Solofra is guaranteed by the valley of Sarno. This condition has led since XIV century to the birth of numerous tanneries which, although altered over the centuries, still retain original traces. The paper, through studies and unpublished documents, aims to increase the knowledge of this topic and to highlight how classifying and restoring this heritage may constitute an extraordinary opportunity to give back an identity to Solofra and to recover its organic role within the surrounding river landscape and its relationship with water.