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CHIAFURA
A rupestrian district in Sicily between the medieval and contemporary ages
AA. VV.
Paolo Militello
cm 21x29,7; ISBN 978-88-7751-500-1,
pagg. 160,130
ill. - Cod: 202305
“Chiafůra” is the toponym of a neighborhood with around a hundred cave
dwellings on the edge of the city of Scicli, in south-eastern Sicily. From
a necropolis to a “rupestrian city”, the site was inhabited from the Middle
Ages until the second half of the twentieth century, when the last “cave
dwellers” were moved to new public housing. Contributing to the success of
this final initiative were the denunciations of several artists and
intellectuals (including Renato Guttuso, Carlo Levi, and
Pier Paolo Pasolini), who in 1959, after a visit to the “cave
dwellers”, ensured that the “Chiafura issue” resounded across the nation.
Chiafura was definitively abandoned a few decades ago and is today a ghost
town. Since the end of the 1970s, however, there have been numerous appeals
and initiatives targeting the recovery of this historical, anthropological,
and architectural heritage. It was not until 2003, however, that a project
(partly commenced) for the construction of a park-museum was funded.
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