Il Parco di Maredolce a Palermo. Progetto di conservazione e valorizzazione di un ambito paesistico di matrice arabo-normanna

In the south of Palermo, among the residual agricultural areas of the rich cultivated plain called Conca d'Oro, there is the Arab-Norman complex of Maredolce-La Favara with its park, characterized by a large lake once fed by the "Fawara" spring, from which the toponym itself derives. Nowadays, the site is located in the industrial suburb of Brancaccio, but still preserves the memory of the original landscape, for the survival of the isle and of the system of hydraulic artifacts for the irrigation of the citrus grove. Today the Soprintendenza Beni Culturali e Ambientali of Palermo, owner of the property, has granted the private management of the park's agricultural areas. The interest in Maredolce was born from the recognition of these values. The research work, begun in 2016 with the participation in the Workshop of the Benetton Studies and Research Foundation which in 2015 had awarded on the park the "Carlo Scarpa International Prize for the garden" (XXVI edition), was later concretized in the thesis for the Specialization in Architectural and Landscape Heritage (Politecnico di Milano). A project for the conservation and enhancement of the Maredolce landscape complex has been drawn up. In particular, the aim was to make more readable the traces of the layering of the park and of the entire historicized cultural landscape of the Conca d'Oro, to preserve the witnesses and also to upgrade a periurban deteriorated area.