I mulini della Val Borbera: un patrimonio rurale diffuso tra passato e presente

Up until the middle of the 20th century, Italy was a country with a predominantly agricultural economy whose production activities over the centuries have generated a rural landscape in which natural components and mankind’s artifacts co-exist. The peculiar Italian rural landscape is the result of the interaction of natural phenomena and human actions that, through the years, shaped “the most gigantic and qualifying Italian profile and design, that of fields and crops, drains and houses, open spaces and tree-lined areas” (Emiliani, 1981). Among the artifacts of the rural landscape, the mills are hydraulic artifacts particularly widespread on the Italian territory. They are interesting not only for their technological and architectural characteristics but also for the production practices and knowledge related to their use. Such practices and knowledge, such as the milling of cereals and proto-industrial productions such as the fulling of wool, the production of oil, etc., are part of the rural material culture and constitute an intangible value at risk of disappearing. In the 1950s, the industrialization of rural areas, their depopulation, and the consequent progressive disposal of these artifacts, led to the abandonment and decline of this vast widespread heritage. Nevertheless, the current trend to re-inhabit rural areas and to reactivate traditional productions – which is often linked to the phenomenon of neo-ruralism – is bringing out once again the importance that these rural artifacts also have, and above all, in the area of valorisation of the territory, often in relation to the implementation of local entrepreneurial sustainability policies. Nonetheless, the will to recover and reuse does not always correspond to the appropriate protection and safeguard of the historical-cultural, environmental and social characteristics linked to this particular heritage. Often, even when recovery is possible, most of these assets are neither registered nor subjected to preliminary protection. Moreover, exists a lack of institutional control over the renovations and the state of conservation and/or abandonment of the building. The research work undertaken on a limited area of the Val Borbera (a valley located between Piedmont and Liguria), together with the consultation of the ICCD catalog files and the “Protected Heritage” files listed by the Ministry of Culture, revealed how there are no specific files for this type of artifacts which consider both their material and immaterial aspects. The research, starting from an initial census of the mills present in the Val Borbera area, critically examines and discusses the problems relating to the filing, knowledge, recovery, and protection of this widespread heritage. Therefore, the preliminary objective consists in proposing a methodological reformulation of the knowledge process, a model of cataloging and mapping the territory which provides for the inclusion of tangible and intangible values of this widespread rural heritage.