The fortified landscape in Trentino, Italy. The experience of the APSAT project - environment and landscapes of the high-ground sites in Trentino

The APSAT project has been funded by autonomous Province of Trento in the framework of the “Great projects 2006 resolution G.P. 3790/2006”. The University of Trento (project coordinator), the Department of Archaeology of the University of Padua, the IUAV University of Venice, the Foundation Bruno Kessler, The Castello del Buonconsiglio, Proviancial Monuments and Collections, the Museum of Custom and Tradition of the Trentino People have partnered in the project. The study developed in the span of years 2009-2013 and started, following a multidisciplinary approach, with the in-depth research on the historical data provided by the written sources, both cartographic and toponymic. The data of the analysis have been put in relation with the set of information obtained through the remote sensing (aero-photo-interpretation and LiDAR scanning) and with the archaeological data obtained on-site derived from the surveys, excavations and stratigraphic analysis of the architectures, with the aim of going back over the main transformations in the landscape. The most widespread main generator elements have been detected in the road system and the settlement web (settlements, fortifications, places of worship, productive activities, ...). A research line has gone deeper into the themes pertaining to the defence systems between the late ancient age and the Middle Ages. Starting from these premises the work on the castles has been conducted by identifying two sectors complementary to each other: a former which is the census and the collection of the data of the single sites in a specific corpus, a latter comprising some in-depth studies and a first balance of the collected data. The real advancement with respect to the previous studies on the Trento castles has been the interdisciplinary approach which has availed itself of the following research methods: 1. The collection of data on the documentary sources; 2. The attention paid to the stratigraphic-architectonic fact and then to the most accurate as possible reconstruction of the buildings timing; 3. The mere archaeological component linked to the material fact, both as far as structures and constructions and the discovered finds are concerned; 4. The connection of the site with the researches on the territory and on landscapes concurrently developed inside the APSAT project. The study has produced 234 cards relative both to rural castles and to urban fortifications, both well preserved and disappeared or present as ruins. The decision of considering the fortified Trentino landscape as a whole has been generated by the intention of comparing the diverse types of fortifications which show analogies, although different as for location and function, from the point of view of the material fact and the building techniques. The APSAT project has turned out to be an occasion of confrontation on the research and appreciation methods of the historical heritage of the autonomous Province of Trento.