Un bilancio di quasi dieci anni di attività di restauro e valorizzazione delle fornaci da calce a Cogoleto

The production of lime was the main economic activity for many centuries, for the Municipality of Cogoleto, on the Ligurian coast between Genoa and Savona. In the eighteenth century in Cogoleto there were 13 groups of furnaces (grouped together with two / three elements per group) active. La Fornace Bianchi, is one of the last built. In nineteenth century it worked until the 1950s. A conservative restoration intervention started in 2008 and completed in 2011, made this area aivailable to visitors: two high lime kilns, dating back to two different construction phases, and most of the processing environments pertinent to a third adjacent oven, lost shortly before the start of the restoration work. In December 2011 the association Fornace Bianchi Cogoleto was established with the aim of promoting social and cultural initiatives to enhance local traditions linked to the manufacture of lime with particular attention to children of school age. Later the association obtained from the Municipality the temporary assignment of the archaeological management of the furnace area. In 2013 the municipality of Cogoleto officially titled the area of the Fornace Bianchi as Area of Industrial Archeology TizianoMannoni. To date, the Area is increasingly becoming a center of research and experimentation that goes beyond the narrow territorial areas with numerous educational and informative activities, with scientific collaborations between Universities, CNR, Building School, ISCUM, local organizations and various types of culture that work to enhance this furnace. This set of initiatives in fact is also involving the other three furnaces still present in the area. In the article, therefore, an initial assessment of this ten-year activity will be attempted, with the related effects on both cultural, tourism and economic activities. Is it possible that an industrial architecture, nowadays obsolete, could be the engine of a revival of the economy and tourism catalyzing activities around itself at various levels? This question was attempted to give an answer by working on a specific research project from 2008 to 2018 in collaboration with the Municipality of Cogoleto, local associations and various institutions of international renown.