The post-disaster legacy in Italy and the effects unfolded by the reconstruction plans

The focus of the paper is to demonstrate, briefly and without any hints of historiographic systematicity, the legacy represented by some fundamental stages of the post-earthquake reconstructions that occurred in Italy over the span of almost sixty years. Some of these processes serve as paradigmatic turning points in both technical knowledge and action in the face of the enigma of natural disasters, illustrating the significance of what happens immediately after a natural disaster in determining not only the strategies for reconstruction of the damaged built heritage but also the more general turning points in the formation of new technical regulations. Earthquakes cause devastation to the buildings and the lives of those who are impacted, while the reconstructions, between successes and failures, offer hints at a new way of thinking about the interaction between the built environment, the territory, and the landscape, highlighting what a community is and, more relevantly, what it intends to become. Furthermore, the document centers the attention on the Emilia-Romagna reconstruction, which is seen, after previous ineffective experiences, as a positive approach to pursue a reconstruction based on participative governance of decisions. It was established through a bottom-up discussion and participatory process. It had a democratic factor in the use of public resources since it was orientated by civic attention at different levels of re sponsibility, from th e ce ntral state governance to the last municipality in the crater. This approach guaranteed the highest levels of safety for residents and, above all, the use of endogenous reconstruction models, which, developed within the affected communities, reveal a strong sense of empathy for the territory and its historical and cultural identities.