Environmental and Sustainable Development A Territorial Approach to the Production of Urban and Rural Landscape

The authors, starting from the examination of the historic data of Palermo landscapes on the south-east side, draw up an analysis of the landscape by illustrating the environmental characteristics and the intervention of man in its transformations. Therefore, determined by a certain point to refer to, the author, based on archival, literary, and existing graphic documentation, has therefore sought to illustrate the evolution of the landscape in the geographical area of Mare dolce while still present relations with the territory of Palermo. Examining the diaries and the end of the eighteenth century with the help of the water colored planks of the sites considering the great patrimony left by landscape painters of the period brought a great deal of information. In this sense, it is possible to evaluate the transformation of Maredolce from swampy and abandoned land of the last seventeenth century (end of sugary activity) to that of new irrigation agriculture. Transformation is common to the entire territory of Palermo with which numerous comparisons are also carried out based on archival documentation. The introduction of the industrial economy of the citrus which has wiped out any past historical stratiﬁcation before being swept by the cementation of the ‘Conca d’Oro’ that still lasts and of which Maredolce (historic palace and its garden) is the last environmental and cultural heritage as a holistic ecosystem that should absolutely be saved by using integrated urban planning with responsible architectonic restoration approaches. International Scientiﬁc Committee of Reviewers.


Methodology
In this contribution, through a multidisciplinary approach, we intend to investigate the hypothesis that there is an analogy between: a) regeneration as a subject on the background of the humanistic approach to sustainable development in the analytical, interpretative and evaluative key of territorialists able development, particularly the enhancement of the resources of agricultural production and cultural heritage. Agriculture and heritage are usually considered as the primary tools of intervention policies in weak areas such as inland areas in Italy. In this contribution, regeneration in the economic-social application of urban and territorial planning and planning related to the arguments (a) and (b) is different from retraining and recovery in terms of simple reuse and even more from recycling. This is because a given regeneration policy tends to include them or better integrate them all because it must necessarily provide both analytical, interpretative, evaluative and operative approaches directly to the physical and environmental contexts as well as the social and economic policies and programs. Regeneration, in its constituent nature of toolkits of differentiated instrumentation of analysis and intervention, qualifies more and more as a mode of approach used. In (a) and (b), the issues of strong ambiguity and difficulty in the definition of regeneration have been highlighted. Additionally, evaluation of regenerative experiences has highlighted the limits of effectiveness and real possibilities of action against the structural causes of social and economic criticality in the correction/qualification of local development policies and urban-scale intervention practices that determine strong impacts on the human settlements system both in terms of identity (cultural impact) and the environment (impacts on natural ecosystem components).
Even though the literature in the field revolves around the term "regeneration", it is merely a defensive wall used to repel haphazard building and design strategies employed by indifferent operators. It doesn't seem like it's the time to completely abandon the use of regeneration as some case studies are currently interconnected and even inspiring. In this regard, we see the possibility of supporting the concept of regeneration and realizing its importance on the condition that some principles, criteria and indicators must be solid and scientifically recognized and duly dialectised as the theories of territorialists (SdT, 2013) and those in the field of planning and urban and architectural design, especially in cases of comparison with the existing cultural, economic, social and environmental heritage to be protected and valorized.
Territorial regeneration now has features that can be considered as an opportunity to redeliver the social and economic peripheries of the weak territories for raising the quality of life. Trying to link functional different approaches such as regeneration into the concept of urban planning/urban planning and territorial approaches can serve to provide a meaningful basis not only for defining but, above all, for the implementation of sustainable local development policies and interventions. Territorial approaches seeking to find a balance in the engagement between critical thinking based on the knowledge of real resources at stake and tactics and design intervention strategies need a clever combination of analysis and attribution of royal rooting values in humans. This is to define both urban and extra-urban landscapes so as to re-elaborate and contextualize the new uses and the flexibility that often depart from the ways in which traditions of reuse, recovery, and retraining have traditionally been entrusted to historical, architectural and landscape heritage.
In the territorialist key, regeneration can be identified in the third principle of territoriality, for "knowledge and values expressed by the local population are the basis for the development of a vital territory capable of selfgenerating. To this end, it is the primary task of research and territorial action to investigate the many local cognitive and value frameworks present locally and translate them to construct a connective infra-language that can express common local projects " (SdT, 2011).
In the spatial design sphere, another aspect is the indispensable bond that, according to the European Charter for Architectural Heritage (Council of Europe, 1975), must be present between conservation and planning: This link today is essential to portray the implicit link between the project culture and the planning culture. This approach to the culture of the project can best be distinguished by the reference to three ways of thinking and acting which together could form the basis of a theory based on that culture: 1. best Preservation is Transformation (Samonà, 1980;Collovà, 2012); 2. there is no urban transformation without urban conservation (Pracchi, 2017;Prescia, 2016); 3. there is no innovative urban planning without social innovation (Tyrwhitt, 1947;Mumford, 1961 pg. 71 The hypothesis of this paper is that the study for the understanding of urban and extra-urban historical dynamics aims to intervene in the production of urban landscapes on individual artifacts, continuously receiving stimuli from these three different approaches to conservation and the urban/territorial regeneration: The first affirms the culture of the project as the basis of the possibility and sustainability of transformation, the second argument affirms the need for integration between planning and conservation while the third recaptures the notion of centrality of the human dimension in every type of transformation of the space of cities and of territories.

On the Landscape Concept
The themes pertaining to the landscape-environmental sphere must be faced in a multidisciplinary manner, being endowed with such complexity that the approaches that concern them often diverge so much that they have very little in common.
If a bias towards considering natural landscapes as worthy of protection is evident in historical, cultural, and judicial literature, that is because of certain cultural reason. In that regard, we can refer to the material dimension (objective) formed by the set of material elements that make up both the intangible dimension (subjective) as an intangible image that is a result of the encounter between those elements themselves and the subject that perceives and interprets them according to their own cognitive and emotional patterns. It is a point of view according to which the set of elements that generate a landscape become an object of interest not because they refer to natural and anthropic processes whose operating rules are to be explained, but as a tangible representation of the universe of symbolic values and cultural activities that animate the actions of society.
The polysemy of the landscape (Socco, 2000) also refers to the different way in which it is understood, on the one hand, by common sense and, on the other, by the disciplines that deal with it, which have always understood it according to the conception. It is also embraced by the European Landscape Convention (CEP, 2000), for which it is the tangible expression of the interactions between the population and its environment, the result of precise territorial evolutionary dynamics, locally endowed with cultural depth. In the CEP it is defined as "a certain part of the territory, as it is perceived by the populations, whose character derives from the action of natural and/or human factors and their interrelations"; in this way, the landscape is distinguished from other geographical concepts, first of all, that of the territory, precisely highlighting the nature of "perceived object". If the territory is, in fact, the "space organized by man", the landscape is the "subjective projection of the territory or the corresponding mental and sentimental projection of the territory acted [...]" (Turri, 2003).
Alternatively, according to common sense, the landscape is far from assuming this connotation of "empirical manifestation of territoriality" (Turco, 2002), it is rather associated with the panorama, or with something worth stopping to watch for the beauty or for the natural or cultural value that is for the relative characters of exceptionality.
In this context, it is interesting to underline how the population-landscape relationship can be observed according to two different perspectives: The former focuses on individual perceptions and focuses its attention on the preferences accorded by individuals to certain types or to certain landscape transformations. The latter investigates the social representations understood as collective constructions whose value (cultural and symbolic) is shared as a whole, thus strongly contributing to the strengthening of the identity ties between individuals and their territory (Dematteis & Ferlaino, 2003;Dematteis & Governa, 2005;Dematteis, 1985Dematteis, , 1989Dematteis, , 1995Castiglioni & De Marchi, 2009).
Particularly, these links originate from a dialectical process of continuous negotiation built on otherness, which makes identity itself a mutable and evolutionary construct which, by its social nature, causes it to be decomposed into many different facets, as is the subject, configuring it as an entity that is anything but monolithic. Through the same, the individual tries to give coherence and continuity to his own existence, finding and reconstructing his own equilibrium over time and through the changes he is called to face. In this sense, personal identity acquires, on the one hand, the locative function -which places the subject in a system of relationships by tracing boundaries pg. 72 -and, on the other, the integrative function, which allows not only a discontinuity with other individuals, but also a continuity with oneself, thus giving coherence to one's existential path (Sciolla, 2002). These functions are valid not only for individual identity but also for that of social groups that give their own collective identity. In this case, the locative function is given by territorial or symbolic boundaries (Magnaghi, 2003).
Alternatively, identity refers to a process that is, in part, consciousness of self-recognition through which the individual or the community, in general, take possession of elements of a given culture, sometimes modifying and re-elaborating them consistently (La Cecla, 1998Cecla, , 2004Strauss, 1986). On the other hand, cultural identity refers to processes that are often unconscious and linked to the set of activities, habits, customs, ways of life and values that a certain human group -characterized by strong social relations within it and established in a territory for which it has a strong sense of rooting -uses as a key to understanding reality, passing it down from generation to generation (Vallega, 2003(Vallega, , 2008Turco, 2002Turco, , 2003Turri, 1974Turri, , 1990Turri, , 1998Turri, , 2000Turri, , 2003.

Maredolce: A Case Study of Urban-Rural Landscape Regeneration
The landscape of the old Conca d'Oro (Mandalà, 2017;Barbera, 2012), wherein Palermo is enclosed, evolved throughout the centuries from a swampy ensemble where dwarf elephants and, perhaps, humans lived to the modern, tragic cementation which still takes place today at a sustained pace.
Periodically, the design of the landscape underwent changes that resulted in the apotheosis of the citrus-fruit gardens and the fragrance of their flowers. This phase marked a time of great wealth for the city, or rather for its ruling class in a context of international trade development.
In truth, the Palermo of "lemons and mandarins" was a rather brief period in the history of the land. However, due to human "short memory," the ancient 'Conca d'Oro' ended up characterizing the city and its inhabitants. Nevertheless, it's still possible to learn of one's past if one wishes to do so. As it's known, there are a few fundamental elements that make up a landscape: its orography and geology, the climate and human intervention. Palermo is defined by a ring of mountains (dolomite limestones), over 1,000 meters tall, and by a corrugated plain that extends towards the sea. The ladder is engraved by various waterways that have heavily marked the landscape, such as the Oreto or Abbas rivers, as well as the two rivulets of the old town: Papireto and Cannizzaro (Scinà, 1818;Todaro, 2014).
The plain presents a fertile mantle, usually a thin one, underneath which calcarenite benches of varying degrees of power can be found. Within these benches are innumerous sources and streams of water. There are also underground basins that are more or less extensive (Fabiani, 1931;Floridia, 1951), where the population has always drawn water from -as demonstrated by both archeological excavations and literary documents. It's a fact that the city has always been rich in water, which was carried all the way to the residencies of the wealthy using forced conduits. Scholars have alwaThe themes pertaining to the landscape-environmental sphere must be faced in a multidisciplinary manner, being endowed with such complexity that the approaches that concern them often diverge so much that they have very little in common.
If a bias towards considering natural landscapes as worthy of protection is evident in historical, cultural, and judicial literature, that is because of certain cultural reason. In that regard, we can refer to the material dimension (objective) formed by the set of material elements that make up both the intangible dimension (subjective) as an intangible image that is a result of the encounter between those elements themselves and the subject that perceives and interprets them according to their own cognitive and emotional patterns. It is a point of view according to which the set of elements that generate a landscape become an object of interest not because they refer to natural pg. 73 and anthropic processes whose operating rules are to be explained, but as a tangible representation of the universe of symbolic values and cultural activities that animate the actions of society.
The polysemy of the landscape (Socco, 2000) also refers to the different way in which it is understood, on the one hand, by common sense and, on the other, by the disciplines that deal with it, which have always understood it according to the conception. It is also embraced by the European Landscape Convention (CEP, 2000), for which it is the tangible expression of the interactions between the population and its environment, the result of precise territorial evolutionary dynamics, locally endowed with cultural depth. In the CEP it is defined as "a certain part of the territory, as it is perceived by the populations, whose character derives from the action of natural and/or human factors and their interrelations"; in this way, the landscape is distinguished from other geographical concepts, first of all, that of the territory, precisely highlighting the nature of "perceived object". If the territory is, in fact, the "space organized by man", the landscape is the "subjective projection of the territory or the corresponding mental and sentimental projection of the territory acted (...)" (Turri, 2003: 23).
Alternatively, according to common sense, the landscape is far from assuming this connotation of "empirical manifestation of territoriality" (Turco, 2002: 39), it is rather associated with the panorama, or with something worth stopping to watch for the beauty or for the natural or cultural value that is for the relative characters of exceptionality.
In this context, it is interesting to underline how the population-landscape relationship can be observed according to two different perspectives: The former focuses on individual perceptions and focuses its attention on the preferences accorded by individuals to certain types or to certain landscape transformations. The latter investigates the social representations understood as collective constructions whose value (cultural and symbolic) is shared as a whole, thus strongly contributing to the strengthening of the identity ties between individuals and their territory (Dematteis& Ferlaino, 2003; Dematteis & Governa, 2005;Dematteis, 1985Dematteis, , 1989aDematteis, , 1989bDematteis, , 1995Castiglioni & De Marchi, 2009).
Particularly, these links originate from a dialectical process of continuous negotiation built on otherness, which makes identity itself a mutable and evolutionary construct which, by its social nature, causes it to be decomposed into many different facets, as is the subject, configuring it as an entity that is anything but monolithic. Through the same, the individual tries to give coherence and continuity to his own existence, finding and reconstructing his own equilibrium over time and through the changes he is called to face. In this sense, personal identity acquires, on the one hand, the locative function -which places the subject in a system of relationships by tracing boundaries -and, on the other, the integrative function, which allows not only a discontinuity with other individuals, but also a continuity with oneself, thus giving coherence to one's existential path (Sciolla, 2002: 144-145). These functions are valid not only for individual identity but also for that of social groups that give their own collective identity. In this case, the locative function is given by territorial or symbolic boundaries (Magnaghi, 2003).
Alternatively, identity refers to a process that is, in part, consciousness of self-recognition through which the individual or the community, in general, take possession of elements of a given culture, sometimes modifying and re-elaborating them consistently (La Cecla, 1998Cecla, , 2004Levi Strauss, 1986). On the other hand, cultural identity refers to processes that are often unconscious and linked to the set of activities, habits, customs, ways of life and values that a certain human group -characterized by strong social relations within it and established in a territory for which it has a strong sense of rooting -uses as a key to understanding reality, passing it down from generation to generation (Vallega, 2003(Vallega, , 2008Turco, 2002Turco, , 2003Turri, 1974Turri, , 1990Turri, , 1998Turri, , 2000Turri, , 2003. ys been captivated by the image that we get from the cartographers of the 1500s of the plain being largely, but not completely, cultivated and surrounded by bare mountains ( fig.1 & fig.3). The countryside, on the other hand, given its many houses and huts, seemed considerably anthropized.
pg. 74  At this time, our main interest is the territory known as Maredolce, meaning the territory of the ancient royal palace of the Fawarah. Today, it's reduced merely to the basin of an artificial lake with oriental and meridional banks given to Monte Grifone and the last remains of citrus-fruit plantation-fruit gardens belonging to Count Federico and Count Ciaculli. Monte Grifone itself, with its "nose", Pizzo Sferrovecchio, has protruding marks that highlight the first identification of the Conca d'Oro and is the fundamental element of the context, "the nose of the great mountain" from which, "desert wind blows". The nose itself is characterized by a system of caves, (named in Italian as "ingrottati"), that will be named 'Grotta dei Giganti' (lit. Giants' Cave), and it is from the nose that the springs of the Grande Fawarah come out, "di li pirtusi." The Normans supposedly used those springs to create the lake and, probably, to provide water to the hospital of San Giovanni de' Leprosi. At that time, the pg. 75 woods, forests and the Macchia (Mediterranean shrubland) probably occupied most of the territory. In fact, it's important to specify that we don't know the exact borders of the "old park" even though we do know that beyond the Eleuterio river laid the Rebuttone feud. More to the west, on the Moarda coast, was the palace of Altofonte. It had two streams, which still exist today, and was surrounded by forests and/or shrublands that reached all the way to, and comprised, the territory adjacent to Partinico. It is now necessary to establish a point of reference to deepen our excursion and this could be represented by the map drawn by Orazio Maiocco of which we know the edition published by Marco Duchetto in 1580/1602 ( fig.3). The authors refer to the date printed in the map and mention that the most known among the geographers, Mario Cartari ( fig.1), was the testamentary curator of Duchetto's company and that Duchetto's uncle, Lafrery, came to Sicily a few years before its termination in the late 1570s. This suffices to assume that the planimetry by Maiocco was made before 1580 and that Cartari somehow came in possession of the copper. This is basically the only map with the geographic and topographic identification of Maredolce (beyond Cartari) because later, cartographers identified the Oreto river as the territorial limit of Palermo. Instead, they expanded northward where the aristocrats and great bureaucrats built their country houses, predominantly (Barbera-Azzarello, 2008). The map (flight of prospective bird) drawn by Maiocco shows down to the left the start of the territory of Maredolce with Sferrovecchio (today Borgo Paradiso) or the "mountain's nose" which detaches from Monte Grifone and the following mountain chain west that includes the "park": that is Altofonte.
We can now form a first image of the landscape in our minds with the peaks and the sides of the mountains (Grifone, Sferrovecchio, etc.) with shades typical of the dolostones that were immortalized years later by Francesco Lojacono and by German, French and English landscape painters from a few years earlier and later (Barbera-Azzarello, 2008). The biggest difference can be found on the mountain slopes where citrus-fruit plantation are not yet present but which are instead still domain of the "ddisa" (ampelodesmos vitis), of the "piraini" (pyrus pyraster), of selvatic olive trees and, probably, remains of 'lecci' (quercus ilex) from the ancient shrubland or woods. This means that shades of yellow are prevalent only in the late summer (given the exposure to the northern wind), and the greens, more or less vivid, are prevalent only in winter and spring. Dominants are the grey and pink shades of the mountain crests and sides. The only exception are the occasional patches of 'lecci' which are evergreen.
pg. 76 The road that crossed the original riverbed of the Oreto river on the Ponte dell'Ammiraglio (lit. Admiral's Bridge), is evidently restricted along its oriental perimeter by the territories of San Giovanni dei Lebbrosi of which one can still see the portico from the 1400s. The bridge is strong evidence of a landscape design which suggests a need to manage power rather than make an economical use of the country. Maredolce (Fawarah) was in fact the winter and spring residency of the royal family. The summer residence was in Altofonte instead (De Simone, 2014). Even in the context of the geographical schematizations of the map, it is possible to sense the presence of crops and uncultivated areas that correspond to the alluvial areas and the Oreto river's mouth of which the different branches and crossings were marked. There we find the Ponte dell'Ammiraglio, "lo ponti del Miraglia", along with a small nameless bridge on the second river branch caused by inundations. These inundations will characterize the city in many ways from the second half of the 1500s to today.
It wasn't possible to cross the river by the seashore. It would only be possible after the construction of Ponte di Mare (XVIII century) that will change the transportation system both from and to the city and will also change the perception of the landscape (Ajmard, 1993). Another important element that marked the difference between the medieval landscape and that of the 1500s, was described by Marina Scarlata (1988: 28) as follows: "The countryside, especially its crops and trading spots, are safe from the unknown thanks the system of watchtowers, which purpose is to watch out for the enemy and to transmit help requests [. . . ] Ruins, new edifications and fortified cities; the coast is as far as ever from its sea due to this defensive line that reminds the urban city walls".
This picture, between the medieval Palermo and the early 1500s one allows us to ask ourselves what the landscape and environment were like in previous years.

Maredolce in the Prehistory
Way before the Romans, in prehistory, the landscape was strongly defined by a series of peninsulas and headlands constituted by the crests of the current mountains: Monte Grifone and the other mountains of the Conca d'Oro.
With regards to Monte Grifone, the level of the water can be estimated not only through the different lines on the side where waves crashed, but also in the perforations of the lithodomes that can be recognized also in the 'Grotta dei Giganti' (Burgio et al., 2002;Turnbull, 1831), thus indicating that they were only partially filled with water.
Thus, the best hypothesis to explain the piling of bones was the movement of the backwash. However, Nino Mannino found some incisions at the entrance of one of the smaller caves on the northern mountain side of Pizzo Sferrovecchio, which can be dated to the neolithic. Mannino complains about the destruction of some incisions on the southern side of the mountain due to some impending quarry, luckily closed today.
The smaller caves are at a higher altitude than the Grotta dei Giganti, but almost at the same altitude as the site where waves crash into the mountain ( fig.4).
To us, today, the extraordinary impact of these caves and mountains on the landscape is fundamental to the pg. 77 aqueduct of Scillato, which façade was carved in the mountainside since the 1800's. Below, there's the interception system and the church of San Ciro which elevates alongside the highway which today links together the mountain and the lake.
It's a send back to the observations and drawings by: Scinà (1831) and by Turnbull (1831

Maredolce During Normans
Hunting was an "aristocratic" activity because it requires being able to ride on a horse and required the courage and skill to kill. One didn't hunt the calm and quiet rabbit. The pray had to be bigger, more suited to wildlife, capable of attacking and defending itself. So, animals like deer, bucks, boars and some predators such as wolves, lynxes, wild cats and foxes were employed. The first ones need woods other than forests. The second ones look for ravines to rest and for peaks to scan the landscape. We can hypothesize an extension till Bagheria since the barony of Solanto sprouted like a mushroom from the legal and territorial void in the 14th century firstly with the grant of the Tonnara (Silvestri, 1985) and to Manfredi 'la sciabica' in the 1365 and afterwards with the progressive occupancy of the feud in the 1392 (Barberi, 1888). It's a fact that Bagheria had a huge royal forest (Falkenhausen, 1980) with security guards. The forest is now lost due to turmoil in the 1300s. It's plausible that its eastern limit was the actual 'Corso dei Mille' and that San Giovanni, along with the neighboring feuds (Scillata, Allegranza, etc.) was already independent as a religious establishment (Lo Piccolo, 1995).

The Rural Transformation
We now move on from the Normans' hunting grounds to the agricultural landscape, which was originally designed for zoo technical activities -mainly focused on pigs (notary's document dark side) which fattening process is helped by eating the brushwood and acorns.
The woods' progressive thinning will lead firstly to the abandonment of these pig farms and the subsequent growth of bovines farming; and then, bovines' farming will decline to the level of growth of ovine farming. These are phenomena that we can see both in the change of income and on the export balance.
As an intermediate stage, we can think of the scrubland (as a visual reference) that exists above Cinisi, as a spotted landscape in which little cultivated properties started to arise. From Emperor Federico's epistolary (Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, s. d.) we can pull data regarding some jobs done in the Norman Park, like the installment of dates plantations (Phoenix Dactylifera) and the re-initialization of the sugar cane.
However, the tipping point was represented by both the Angioino-Aragonese wars (which destroyed the dates plantation) and that led to the destruction of Palermo's landscape. It was also represented by "l'avventura dello zucchero" (Trasselli, 1982) that lasted until the 1600s in Palermo and until the 1700s in the rest of Sicily.
A midterm stage exists then (XIV cen.) in which the landscape is characterized by the effects of wildfires and the cropping of the vineyards. A fine example of that is Maredolce, although we must remember that its cultivation, as it's described in the archival documents, were mainly focused in the northern area towards the Oreto where once we could find the dates plantations that were cut down and given to the Chiaramonte family who will build upon it "Torre dei diavoli".
Due to its easy irrigation, Falso Miele's plain saw great opportunity in the cultivation of sugarcane (Trasselli, 1967(Trasselli, , 1982. The sugarcane, which lifespan is at least two years, covers almost every unused plain and irrigable spot and it must be preserved with fences (drywalls). Consequently, few changes took place to coercively install irrigation channels as in ordinance of 14, july 1418, that will last till the cementation of the Conca d'Oro.
The biggest issue is derived from the vineyards' existence because the channels had to be built along the perimeter. The landscape drastically changed after the experience of urban gardens (Bresc, 1972) with properties that can be pg. 78 recognized through their walls and sugarcane will now cover its field for at least 2-3 years and flatter its asperity.
Where the terrain is no longer irrigable, cereals and vineyards will show up in place of the scrubland (Fazello, 1573). It's noteworthy that wine's consumption was a sanitary necessity due to the easily polluted drinking water in the urban area. Thus, the vineyards were highly developed and found a suitable and specialized environment in the countryside of Bagheria. This is the time when Fawarah changed its name to Maredolce (Auria, 1625).
Due to lack of royal control, people started to enter the park and discovered its lake and "the giants". The concession of the royal complex to the Magione will lead to its private exploitation.
Maybe it's not a coincidence that a few years after the concession of the Norman park, Chiaramonte, who had ordered the concession of the royal complex to the Magione in the name of the King, obtained the big olive-tree plantation and the Guadagna. False truths of history: It's told that the concession to Magione took place due to the damages done to a garden found in Palermo, while it's correct to say that it was found in Messina. The concession of the Fawarah will lead to the full-time sale of water, while the building complex will be changed into a "hospital" that placed a heavy focus on thermal baths. Water sales led to the irrigation of feuds both under the current Via Conte Federico and the original hospital properties of San Giovanni and to the distribution for mills (Pergole) and "trappeti". The only remains found are those of Pollastra on the way to Brancaccio. So, the wide landscape that can be found North-west of the "strada del buon riposo" (the good rest road) is now irrigated. In the mid-1500s (Fazello, 1573) the basin is basically split into two parts of which one will remain swampy until the 1700s and the other is constricted in the area in front of the dam as tell us Fazello (Mortillaro, 1858): "Further ahead, about a mile from here, we can find an abundant spring known as «Favara di San Filippo», where King Ruggero built a palace that will be an amusing place for the king and it will take the spring's name as we are told by a privilege King Federico II gave to Messino in 28 june 1307. Less than 400 footsteps from stratum of another mountain there's another spring called Maredolce where we can see the remains of a royal pool. Above this spring there's a grotto where it was found a very tall corpse".
We know that Favara is now used to name the second spring that can be found in Villabate. Also, we know that in an uncertain period we could find another spring in the north-western side of the island. At last we know that on Sferrovecchio's edges it exists a fortification of which could see the tower along the 1600s. We also know that the fences within the second Favara was characterized by iron doors that named the area and left base to gain a title of nobility. The matches between San Domenico's picture in the Archive of State in Palermo (ASP) and the drawings made by Auria (1625) give us some ideas of that landscape, if not some certainties. We must make clarify that the authors' cognition of space and viability which is far different from ours.
The great works of collection that can be seen in arches of San Ciro are described by Maja (1680) and sketched by Auria. It was also illustrated in a later work found in the convent of San Domenico, who took possession of the southern side of the lake almost until Ciaculli. On the north-western side of the mountain we can see some fortifications that were probably dismissed later to build the church, which will be incorporated in the modern San Ciro. Other jobs of water containment can be found in the valley.

The Comeback of Agriculture in the 1700s
The evolution of the marketplace, where an internal factor exists in the increase of the population, another one is the progressive debt of the aristocrats who will be substituted by another emerging class, bourgeois and bureaucrats, will lead to a new urbanization of the countryside which leads to a renewed interest in its fields and its exploitation.
At the international level there may be a greater interest in the trade of gains due to an increase in the population. Culturally, there's an increased interest for agricultural experimentation and for a rational agriculture (Nicosia, 1735). However, the evolutionary processes of Maredolce are slow due to both the raging malaria and the economic interests that are born during the abandonment period. During the final quarter of the century the economic formula introduced by Agraz and Pastore contemplates the complete exploitation of the fund, including the renovation of the palace.

pg. 79
The renovation of the royal palace, intended to use the land for agricultural purposes, foresees the enlargement of the main gate and the toughening of anything that hadn't collapsed. The pre-renovation status of the palace is illustrated in the maps by the royal architect Chenchi (Barbera, Boschiero, Latini, & Ricerche, 2015), which can be confronted with the map done a few years before by Pigonati (1767, see Barbera et al. 2015: 78, fig.11). Next to Maredolce's basin there's an agricultural complex. Once property of San Domenico, the complex was taken over by Federico earls who expanded it and turned it into a country residence. Today, the complex is divided up among countless owners and the expansion of the church has caused grave damages to the beam where, originally, the key element was a tower. Formerly, the fund, property of the Magione, was registered to the convent of San Domenico and later to the Counts of San Giorgio (Federico) who had also obtained the exploitation of the waterways of Maredolce or the "scomunica".
From the study of archival data, we can observe the presence of many agricultural entrepreneurs who focused solely on those crops that brought water from Count Federico. In a map which was once available, now stolen, one can notice mulberries on the northern side of the plain. This suggests that silk was being produced.

Crops and the Changing Landscape
The ancient landscape characterized by centuries old olive trees at the borders of the estates and vineyards that are more or less developed changed all of a sudden. This was due firstly to the introduction of the 'bindoli' or norie alla Gateau (Belidor, 1835; Alfonso-Spagna, 1875), which allowed each owner or leaser of a fund to change it from a managed fund to an irrigated one. Secondly, the change that took place since the trade of lemons and other citrus-fruit plantations, even on an international level, was first aided and then surpassed by the industrial use of citrus-fruit plantation for the extraction of citric acid. Wherever possible, progressively, citrusfruit plantations were grown with a predominance of lemons and mandarins (Barbera, 2012). All of Palermo's countryside -except for the urban orchards, which had economic viability with a stock of three crops as Scillata or Allegranzia (Villabianca, 1777-1789; Cancila, 1984) -was shaping, fighting over every square decimeter of land for other usage (Villa Campofiorito, Castelnuovo Institute). There are some historic photos (Morello, 1999) shows the countryside crawling with mandarins. We can also see the orchards mainly located on the sea facade. Here, another feature of the making of the landscape is highlighted: the barriers of 'canne vive' (reeds) (Alfonso-Spagna, 1875). These barriers used to protect the gardens from the sea winds. The old street 'Via Messina', through the Marine from Torre dei Corsari, in Palermo, was one long line of reeds interrupted only by the villages.
Citrus-fruit plantations, instead, especially in the Piana dei Colli, are progressively shielded by rows of cypresses which delimited the fields, helped by some walls. The "Firriati" became unbeatable barriers reaching and surpassing two meters in height. Ultimately, by natural means (cypresses and reeds) or artificial means (firriati) the landscape became more and more defined by a grid of fields. The grid was included in that of rural, neighboring pg. 80 and municipal roads. The first victims of this new development will be, obviously, "wild trees", since the 'noria alla Gateau' (Belidor, 1835; Alfonso-Spagna, 1875) will be put in place mainly with steam engines powered by wood. Even when a new way will be found, the community will proceed to eliminate the remaining forests that the aristocrats privatized, taking it away from the local farmers (Giuffrida et al., 1996).
In Maredolce, the very tall chimneys that characterize Bagheria's, Carini's and dei Colli's countryside were only a small number due to the great presence of springs (De Simone, 1974). What changes is the perception: the man is now smaller and is dominated by "firriati" that closes the panorama. Only by going up the foothills can you dominate the landscape (Grifone, Santa Maria di Gesù, Monte Pellegrino, Caputo, ecc.).
The fence wall now blocks every sight (extreme defense of private property) and it preludes, or foretells, the period of great death in which people are killed with the "lupara". Before changing this subject, it's worth to remember a fact that has always intrigued historians from the Garibaldin's epopee. The question is: Why did Garibaldi change route instead of going down Gibilrossa through Maredolce, take a terrible road and proceed through Corso Dei Mille before reaching Maredolce? The reason is simple. San Ciro's church, with Monte Grifone provides an unattainable limit on the western side; water receptacles (swamp and anchovies farming) provide an unattainable limit on the eastern side. Therefore, a little detachment of soldiers could have blocked anybody in a tremendous massacre. This gives us a new element to evaluate this area. Many painters have abundantly drawn these elements.
Only one thing is left to mention. The citrus-fruit plantation swarm into every field except orchards and olive-tree plantations which are maintained by the intercropping. It will last about 50 years and it will end with the loss of the intercultural olive tree because local olive trees cannot stand irrigation. Citrus-fruit plantations will never be taller than 2.5 meters height.

The Making of the Landscape
A law of 1939 prepared at the end of the fascist regime and declared obsolete establishes some rules to protect the landscape: 1. the landscape that one can enjoy from the monument, 2. the landscape that one can enjoy looking at the monument, These are the fundamental, 100 percent modern needs we would say even contemporary, even if by now they are brutalized and reduced to a mediatic virtualism from the cultural changes of our society.
Here we must underline the importance of the Norman interventions. The making of the lake, through the construction of the dam and the cut of the great southern channel with the water-collection system, is a key element implemented by the Normans, or the previous Muslim regime, under the "nose of the mountain". We can get a pretty good picture from Auria's sketch (1625), today damaged and almost illegible due to the renovation.
Another element that can't be ignored is the finish of the royal palace: white stucco. This is certain because until the progressive renovation of the palace won't scrape away the last layer of plaster, it'll be possible to imagine the external appearance of the building. It's therefore possible to observe that Maredolce was also covered in white stucco, as was Altofonte. The city still has a wall today that, until a few years ago, shined because of the bright white finely decorated with 'conci' (Meli, 1990). The big building complex, being the king's private property, was not open to the public. Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe,Palazzo Abatellis Regional Gallery, Palermo, n. D313.@ Therefore, the palace is a strong element of the landscape which stands out in front of the lake and in relations to the woods. It is, however, less visible from the outside both because of the fences and for the system of internal courtyards. Today, we have mere traces of the ladder in Piazza Giafar and in a drawing by Leon Dufourn made in Naples by Raffaele Aloja (fig.6). In this drawing one can see the remains of a fence and of the vaulted roofs.

The Period of Sugar
With the acquisition by the Magione of the good, at the beginning of the Aragonese period, the possibility of exploitation of the fund was discovered. Consequently, pressures to foster alienation began. Chiaramonte and the emerging bourgeoisie of Palermo participated, led by the Bologna which obtained rights to the management of the palace and the goods that surrounded it.
Since water become a huge source of income, it's possible that the first projects downriver were done in that period and their successive abandonment will be the cause of the waterlogging with the following works taking place at the end of 1700s. Both in Auria's picture as well as in the later one of San Domenico we find some elements which are worth analyzing although they are posterior to the period concerned.

The Actual Components of the Landscape
We can define it as a triangle with San Ciro as its summit and Gibilrossa and Maria di Gesù as its extremities. The fundamental elements of the landscape will be Pizzo Sferrovecchio with caves and springs and the peak of Monte Grifone (Maja, 1680). Conventionally, we can say that the fundamental element that makes up the landscape is the interaction between the lake and the mountain. In fact, the mountain is the source of all the waterways and their extraordinary range (Villabianca, 1777-1789). Their vastness, their existence in orthogonal planes, their colors and their seasonal change are elements that alone characterized the landscape and that can't be ignored. and their river basin is autonomous against the rivers Oreto and Eleuterio.
The emotions that these elements provide and that allow us to abstract ourselves from the tragic and impending city, entering a fantastic dream in which can live with fantasy and history for thousands of years cannot be ignored. This includes the collections of the university Museum "Gemmellaro" and remembering that San Ciro's church in the fossils bank of the Quaternario (Mannino, 1964).
From the water tower made by the "Gebbia", which was built on the western side of the island, we can easily comprehend the aforementioned fact. From this side, we can observe the mountain in all its power marked downward by San Ciro's church and by the thin line of the highway. To the right, we can see the arches and the remains of the water-collection system. We can only imagine the sparkling of the lake underneath, which waters crush on the western seashore.
On the opposite side, over the citrus-fruit plantations, we can see the more or less abusive buildings standing up with violence and desperation on the edge of Via Conte Federico, an old rural lade which today is an urban street. It's not too hard to hide those urban disasters using rapidly grown plants and trees with a slower growth rate.
The urban side (Piazza Giafar) of the complex presents similar if not more difficult problems, both for the existing buildings and because some of the areas of relevance became roads etc. It would be useful to approximately identify the areas of relevance to the palace, the hot springs can be used because the space in front of the palace can be salvaged and a photographic memory of the early 1900's can be recalled. However, a citrus-fruit plantation has no impact on the monumental context.
It's not fundamental that the front be immediately visible. However, it's preferable that the vegetation screen mediate the impact of the city, providing a surprise effect that was surely more in tune with what the old building felt like.
The main opening of the complex is towards the mountain side, which is the original opening of the complex and it portrays the environment, which is fundamental in protecting the historical complex of Maredolce.
In its current conformation, the highway becomes an element that allows to experience the park in an internal dimension of movement, as it ties together the mountain side on one end and the beginning of the lake with the sea at the background on the other.
It's necessary to take advantage of the fact that the highway is built on pillars (already known hideout place for mafia's weapons). In other words, it's possible to rebuild on the sediment the viable vessel between the environmental parts. While on a visual level, we must think beyond the highway we, about the 'Grotta dei Giganti' (Giants Cavern) and the "archi" (arcs).
The landscape towards Gibilrossa -to the west of the city center-consists of residual citrus-fruit plantation of Croce Verde and the following ones of Ciaculli. Moving away from the unattainable desire of a wider environmental preservation (Rebuttone), we can take as a reference point the garibaldian obelisk made by Giovanbattista Basile (opening on April 4 th , 1882).
Towards the sea we can see Villa Baglio Federico, Regia Corte, Vignivalles, Sant'Anna, Saverio Cavallari's School, Villa Palme Koenig. Close by, the bathroom of Queen Constance, a tasteful pastiche of the 1800s realized by changing around a "Camera dello Scirocco".
pg. 83 Heading North, we can note the two hamlets of Brancaccio (Torre Pollastra) and Torrelunga, with Orfeo's music.
Finally, we can note the landscape barriers: the highway band (see above), the railroad, the double line and the railway stations.

The Most Important Phases of Actual Transformations From the Country to Rural-Urban Areas
The first (fundamental) scientific contribution to the knowledge of the castle/palace Maredolce was made by Goldsmitd (Goldsmidt, 1895;Di Stefano, 1955;Prescia, 2012). The Maredolce area was influenced by a long and slow process of abandoning the peripheral areas located on the eastern side of the city. While the countries of Ciaculli and Croceverde Giardini will maintain until now the agricultural productive activities based on the cultivation of the citrus fruit, the actions of expansion and urban qualification anticipated from the plan of post war reconstruction and after from the masterplan of 1959-1962, will never be realized. This masterplan is known as the Mafia's plan (Cannarozzo, 2011) because its effects to the city were mainly related to the buildings growth without limits, apparently. But new studies demonstrate that authors of the original Masterplan of Palermo, see in particular the role and the cultural effort of Edoardo Caracciolo, had good targets and visions (Cannarozzo, 2016) but their approach was totally ignored and mystified by local leaders of the municipality governments after the planning presentations and approvals. The consequence of these lack of Masterplan previsions is that the whole of this area on the east side of Palermo has been left to socially and economically degrade and become marginalized. From the end of the second war until now all the municipality governments of Palermo tried to realize the planning previsions and the economic initiatives to supply the agricultural activities of the east part of the 'Conca d'Oro'. The Palermo's first Masterplan (1959) was elaborated together a metropolitan plan oriented to the industrial development with the empowerment of the infrastructure of urban & regional transit. The first Masterplan changed the first perspectives of sophisticated urban futures with new productive zones and important social services. The most important urban transformations of the 'future' Palermo are planned for the east side zone including a new football stadium with new sports zones, a new railway station and logistic gateway, a new coastal touristic waterfront (etc.), and, above all, the planned destination for the new park of Oreto River with the exception of the river inlet area (Gulì, 1980).
Unfortunately, all these initiatives were not successful. One reason for these failures was probably some planning errors in implementing the public destinations, services and infrastructures. But another cause, starting at the end of 60's until 90's, was the strong presence of the organized criminality well known as 'Mafia' that here have the power control of all legal work activities and of criminal drug markets at the maximum level (Deliziosi, 2013;Lupo, 1993;Renda, 1997;Marino, 1998)

Trip of Social Regeneration
Considering the societal mix of the people living in the second district, it's not difficult to highlight the sequence of participating experiences that animated this urban-rural context despite the presence of local criminality and the low level of urban centrality. The mobilization of citizens started at the beginning of the 70's in the restoration of the bridge 'Ponte dell'Ammiraglio' when a free association of the Brancaccio neighborhood proposed to the major and the regional government that they'd like to rebuild the monument. They fought against the indifference of the decision makers and the same tendencies of the local people to damage the cultural resources that are not employed to gain social advantages. The same kind of social mobilization was for the restoration (and discovery) of Maredolce supporting the safeguard activity of the Cultural Heritage Regional Authority (Quartarone, 2016).

pg. 85
Trapani / Environmental Science and Sustainable Development, ESSD This regional institution was involved in the process of recovery and restoration not only for architectonic resources (Abbadessa & Piazza, 2015) but also because its institutional competence, especially regarding the expropriation of the Castle (Savarese, 1984(Savarese, , 2016 and of the original lake's entire area to the Mount Grifone. From the 80's to the 2010, the Regional Authority, with the strong support of some schools (teacher, students and families of the neighborhood) and several local spontaneous cultural associations, together started the regeneration process for Maredolce and its image for the (new positive) identity of the neighborhood.
For seven years, the situation was dangerous for the destination of the Castle and the park of Maredolce because one of the most important criminals, Totuccio Contorno, did choose this monument to be his own house.
The first public intervention to defend the rural landscape that survived cementation was the project "Life" centered around the opening of a new rural park in the area of Ciaculli Croceverde Giardina to promote the agriculture of a citrus farm (Life, 1997).
The municipality closed the new masterplan process between 1994-2004. This new masterplan inspired by the advice of Pierluigi Cervellati was based on the conservative approach and had two main visions: a) Palermo must be a city of several cities (where Maredolce will be the center of a new district with the same name) and b) the importance of the water and water sources for the design of the city in the future. With the masterplan of Cervellati, the entire land of Palermo can be used (not consumed) for the first time by a tool shared like a social contract oriented to the integral conservation of the environmental and cultural landscape.
The public interest with the social security in Brancaccio pushed the National Government to finance a survey (Next, 2008) to highlight the nodes to solve the social and economic development dilemma of the neighborhood; this is the starting point of every kind of cultural heritage policy.
In 2010, the slow and gradual process of partial opening of the palace and park in Maredolce are consolidated with the manifestation of Italy's Environment Fund (Fondo Ambiente Italiano) that, in two days of extraordinary opening to the public, reported more than twenty thousand visitors. Between 2010 and 2012, the University of Palermo, thanks to a project of the initiative of the European Commission and by establishing an international partnership led by the Tuscany region, experienced innovative participatory practices using ICT equipment that involved the whole of the Second Municipal District. The intention of the participants in the project of Community Initiative Parterre was to start a gradual process of awareness of problems and resources of the district's territory to build a shared agenda of practical projects and real actions to implement with the aim to ensure the desirable future by citizenship.
The Parterre project allowed for the organization of the first town meeting, which was an Electronic Town Meeting (ETM) that took place in February 2012. It was necessary that the ETM be prepared with traditional methods of participatory planning (focus groups, neighborhood walks and planning for real) lasted four months. (Marsh et al., 2013) with the approach of territorial Living Lab (De Bonis & Trapani, 2017).
In 2012, the Municipality of Palermo participated in the ministry's infrastructure program for urban regeneration to propone the urban renewal which covers a range of projects throughout the second district and, for the area of Maredolce, calls for collaboration with the Cultural Heritage Authority. In this important phase, the institutional agencies involved found a financial agreement with the owners of the building who insist on the square in front of the building making it impossible for its overview. With this agreement for the expropriation of the buildings in front of the Castle, it could have been a monumental new plaza in the center of a degraded neighborhood.
Other important interventions were the construction of the tram and especially the decision on an urban destination for the new church dedicated to 'Padre Pino Puglisi' (priest of Brancaccio, killed by mafia on 15 September 1993 and then beatified on 25 may 2013) in a place very close to Maredolce and some public schools. A new project was prepared by the Municipality to upgrade the railway bridge on via Giafar of great importance to find spaces for tour buses connected to future visits to the park and to the church. Unfortunately, the program was not funded by the state at that time. Despite the lack of funding, the Cultural Heritage Authority may promote the integrated project again with the changes that will be required by the State or by the European Commission.
pg. 86 In 2016, the Benetton Foundation researched and studied Treviso with its international scientific committee and decided to honor the historical park of Maredolce with the international Carlo Scarpa award. The Benetton Foundation recognized the distinctive characteristics of the historical landscape by safeguarding and entrusting this task to the Cultural Heritage Authority of Palermo and then the Sicilian Region (Barbera et al., 2015). In the meantime, a number of other measures were also in place to animate people of Brancaccio, particularly significant was the involvement of pupils from different schools of the neighborhood from the center of the Sicilian region (Metalli, 2015) pointing to the training given to awareness of archaeological resources and cultural heritage for residents.
Between 2012 and 2015, the Municipality of Palermo started changing the planning scheme with the guidelines of the masterplan (2013) that is a city council policy document drawn up on the basis of the technical analysis of the municipal office.
The general view of the preliminary masterplan assigned to Maredolce is monumentally based on the presence of the countryside. The land use destination by the Masterplan is related to the citrus gardens of the 'Baglio Conti Federico'. While the definition of urban park, that still weighs heavily on geological constraint (flood risk), will be clarified in the final version of the plan. Even so, given the presence of the circumvallation (Viale della Regione Siciliana), you may notice the lack of landscape relationship at least between the Park and the foothills system of mount Grifone with the church and the arches of St. Ciro.
Today, we know that the idea of getting the public property on the entire area is a very far or very difficult accomplishment. The debate regarding the restoration of the monuments and of the cultural landscape of Maredolce point to the creation of a strategy for the protection and promotion shared with the owners that would remain for much longer and that may make profits or tax benefits. Certain tools and strategies may be employed to decrease land use and apply the future plan to increase the volume of buildings. We could reach financial economics solutions for the quantization of non-exploitative projects and agree on settlements that serve public interests in terms of developing an urban landscape project in the most degraded part of the city creating a sort of protected paradise for local people. Once there is full accessibility to the area with minimal renovation requirements, it will be possible to propose that the park be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Based on the studies and research, the evidence is still missing unitary project of restoration of the palace in relationship with the entire monumental system of the Park Maredolce, Monte Grifone and the ancient thermal baths. In debates organized and promoted by the Cultural Heritage Authority of Palermo, the urban definition that protects the Park of Maredolce from improper to public park without there being a landscape project qualified as a guide of the private interventions was unclear. Without the necessary safeguards, it may be possible for private owners to create an artificial lake as a thematic water park or amusement park and make it suitable even for bathing or for the arrangement of spaces for entertainment or entrusting experts in wedding planning. Without a shared vision of sustainable landscape use for the monumental system of the Park of Maredolce, the risk of loss of cultural value of the area could remain very high.

Discussion
This contribution has investigated a place, its history, and the main aspects of its physical and spatial changes. We haven't focused on other important aspects; however, we are well aware of all the studies concerning the agricultural specialties to which we refer. We cited other studies and other subsidies that have investigated many other kinds of human actions (archival history, history and criticism of urban planning, restoration, etc.) that this synthetic contribution refers to.
We should resume the methodological premises relating to not what has been done but, rather, what must be done. We referred only to the first principle of the theory of regeneration inserted at the beginning of this contribution: The interventions on the cultural heritage are only possible when the actors of change have full knowledge and awareness of all the elements that compose the unitary system of the interventions. That action is needed to avoid the loss, not only of the historic memory, but also of the possible bases for reestablishing new identity processes.
pg. 87 Trapani / Environmental Science and Sustainable Development, ESSD The cultural resources could become new urban community roots and replace the current consociation phenomena that make people atomized, in conflict, and increasingly isolated.
In ancient times, it was a human characteristic to pass down your culture and traditions. It is noticeable that this is represented in key figures who were photographed wearing the clothes of ancient roman noblemen.
So, we tend to refer to previous eras when it comes to our latest knowledge of the Conca d'Oro imagining that there always were lemons and tangerines and scents of orange blossoms. But, as we have seen, it didn't happen: the history can be used, or consumed, as crutch to design the future urban cultural landscape without free contemporary solutions.
The project of integrated regeneration of a given urban landscape covered or deprived of monuments will have to be contemporary because it will always be part of the inhabitants and users over time. Every new cultural intervention must become 'tradition'. Tradition and belonging to the living environment become, in turn, the basis of the cultural identity of the community, providing its members with cohesion and a sense of continuity with the past. These are important existential references, the intensity of which may persist over time even if changes in the social structure occur or new value systems are established through which to give meaning to reality.