Le mura del Casamale: conoscenza storica e svolgimento costruttivo

Even though they are not entirely preserved now, the historic walls in Casamale’s hamlet are still a significant landmark within the multicentric layout composing the historic urban centre in Somma Vesuviana. The literary review about them reveals wide gaps concerning their philological documentation and building and material constitution, such as it can be inferred only through their punctual stratigraphy and archaeology-based surveying. Because of these gnoseological lacunas, the city walls have been diversely dated so far, ranging from the Angevin kingdom up to the early 16th century. Starting from their “desk survey”, i. e. an archive, cartography, and iconography-based research, their remnants were geometrically surveyed in order to characterise them, thus defining their building features. The historic building development and chronological phasing of the walls were then ascertained in the light of the historical residential development of the hamlet, as well as comparing them to the late-Medieval fortifications building features, especially within the regional context.