Historic centres in Sicily and political recovery: Palermo and Siracusa.

The paper refers to a particular aspect of the topic of interest “Development policies and urban conservation of historic areas”, addressing the theme of recovery of historic centres. First they are often degraded urban areas, but a great historical and cultural value, reported from deep layers of the built heritage, therefore they have a great potential in terms of functions that can still play in the contemporary city. From an examination of Southern Italy historic centres topics and problems, and especially Sicilian, the paper provides a analysis of national and regional legislation, and explores some approaches to recovery Sicilian historic centres, through two case studies: Palermo and Siracusa. Palermo, Sicily’s capital and centre of history and culture of the Island and Mediterranean, has a great old town, which still suffers the consequences of inadequate urban planning. Syracuse is a great palimpsest of centuries of history, readable through its many archaeological heritage but also through the historic buildings of Ortigia, charming island which is the historic centre. The two cities, in relation to different processes of economic and cultural growth, carry out similar approaches in the processes of urban and territorial redevelopment. The presence of two town planning tools formed the basis for subsequent policies of recovery and redevelopment: Plan for historic centre of Palermo, and Plan for Ortigia, following the application of a special law. The two cases show that appropriate public policies need to exit from a situation of marginalization and degradation since the presence of a town planning tool.