Sleeping beauties. Ancient princesses in developing municipalities

Nowadays, the abandonment of churches is a visible phenomenon in many Italian and European cities. Architectural jewels, created by the work and labour of past generations, are now closed, decayed and destined for ruin. The slow passing of the time and the lack of maintenance make urgent the need to recover it, before collapses could compromise their reuse forever. For a better understanding of the phenomenon, the research has focused on cataloguing and comparative analysis of different European reuse case studies, such as: historical reconstruction, relationship between church - historic past and present city centre, design strategies and related construction techniques for reuse. The aim of the research was to read the abandoned ecclesiastical complexes in the contemporary urban context, in order to understand their capacity of adaptation during the historical transformations of the surrounding urban environment. The idea was to show how the non-adaptation of such buildings throughout history is at the basis of new reuse operations involving new project readings in respect to the evolution of the city. Finally, this analysis was focused on Italy in order to understand the future trend of abandoned about places of worship, and to start up a complex phenomenon, still in progress, with the mapping of abandoned churches in the various regions. Among the various abandoned churches, in comparison to the principle aims of the research, the case study of the former Church Santa Maria del Carmine in Piacenza, which best exemplified the studies carried out in the context, has been chosen. The medieval building has been disposed during most of the 19th century, being the historical period that saw the most significant transformations of surrounding public spaces. The analysis of the new context has led to propose a reusing design project different, for function, from its historical one, but coherent to the future of the city.