La valle del Belìce dopo il terremoto del 1968: rappresentazione di una complessità territoriale tra nuovi paesaggi, città ricostruite e identità

The Belìce Valley, a large geographical area of fourteen municipalities in western Sicily, is a complex territory. In 1968 it was shocked by a violent earthquake, which was followed by large projects and huge investments aiming at its rebirth. Fifty-two years after that traumatic event the Belìce Valley still suffers from strong demographic depletion and has difficulty in achieving a good level of development. This research starts with hints of the geographical location of the valley and the seismic event is followed by the reconstruction of the socio-economic and territorial mosaic that has witnessed architectural and identity changes, which affected four locations in particular: Gibellina, Poggioreale, Salaparuta, Montevago. Focus is put both on the complex dynamics that accompanied local development and on landscape permanence through the support of iconography, cartography and photographs. This contribution intends to reflect on the policies put in place to remedy inappropriate choices in the reconstruction phase and the lack of maintenance that ended up compromising the quality of life of the resident communities. These policies focus on the territorial milieu and identity traits as well as on the “liveliness” of the productive fabric, as flywheels for achieving positive results for the Belìce Valley territory.