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Redevelopment of Castel

San Gimignano cemetery

The cemetery of Castel San Gimignano is a paradigmatic example of a "camposanto" in the Tuscan countryside: an expression of the civitas found in the village and its agricultural land, a source of life. The typological characteristics of its uniform shape are still clearly visible: an enclosure with stone masonry and burial fields at staggered altitudes, following the slopes of the land in a terraced pattern. The multiple entrances follow the articulation of the two upper and lower fields.

The conscious choice to use an architectural component (gabion walls) usually used as containment for slopes and land was based on this place's manifest tension. The dry stone walls represent the direct physical and spiritual connection with the lives of those who have lived in the environmental, civic and cultural context of Castel San Gimignano. A place full of history and work, with and for the land: a matter of sustenance and life. The dry stone terrace wall between the two fields has been restored and consolidated, and a protective shoulder made of natural linear gabions with multivarietal sedum plant essences has been placed at the top. The steps connecting the two fields have also been renovated, with the shoulders replaced with new gabion structures. New cypresses soften the visual impact with the old burial niches built in the 1970s, and jasmine plants grow along the sides of the gabion walls. As the seasons pass, they will change the wall's appearance, a metaphor for how memory and life are all one in the transience of life.

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WHAT

Project, DL, Safety

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WHERE

San Gimignano - IT

WHEN

2016 - 2019

WHO

MICROSCAPE 
+ L. Aldiccioni 3D Visual artist

+ geologist F. Rinaldi
geologist L. Bargagna Studio GAIA

PHOTO

© Filippo Poli

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