Overview

Shaped by encrusted layers of development spanning millennia, the southern Italian city of Matera is the ultimate palimpsest. Known as the Sassi, the majority of the ancient city is composed of thousands of structures carved into a limestone cliff and clinging to its walls. The resultant menagerie of forms possesses a surprising visual uniformity and an ineffable allure. Conversely, in the 1950s Matera also served as a crucible for Italian postwar urban and architectural theory, witnessed by the Neorealist, modernist expansion of the city that developed in aversion to the Sassi. In another about-face, the previously disparaged cave city has now been recast as a major tourist destination, UNESCO World Heritage Monument, and test subject for ideas and methods of preservation. Set within a sociopolitical and architectural history of Matera from 1950 to the present, this book analyses the contemporary effects of preservation on the city and surrounding province. More broadly, it examines the relationship between and interdependence of preservation and modernism within architectural thought. To understand inconsistencies inherent to preservation, in particular its effect of catalyzing change, the study lays bare planners' and developers' use of preservation, especially for economic goals and political will. The work asserts that preservation is not a passive, curatorial pursuit: it is a cloaked manifestation of modernism and a powerful tool often used to control economies. The study demonstrates that preservation also serves to influence societies through the shaping of memory and circulation of narratives.

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9781409412076

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Reviews

'Anne Toxey guides the reader through a revelatory tour of this important site as it has been transformed both physically and ideologically, especially in recent years, by a potent mix of global capital, the E.U., tourism, and the values of world heritage itself. It is nothing less than a cultural history of preservation, arguably the first such endeavor of book length. Mining archival sources, the built environment, as well as scholarly, theoretical, and literary works, Toxey brings the complexities of this seemingly infinitely layered site into vivid focus with wonderfully literate prose.' Andrew M. Shanken, U.C. Berkeley, USA 'The Matera that is familiar to us through the writing of Carlo Levi and the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini and Mel Gibson is rendered more nuanced, complex, and interesting in Toxey's breathtaking study. Once abandoned, but now preserved and recognized by UNESCO, the unique sassi and the story of their regeneration will be of interest to urban planners, architects, preservationists, geographers, historians, and anthropologists alike. This study provides a terrific microhistory of Italian urbanism. The range of illustrations is reason enough to find a permanent place for this book on your shelf.' D. Medina Lasansky, Cornell University, USA 'Following World War II, the southern Italian town of Matera, partially nestled in a limestone ravine riddled with cave-like dwellings, achieved iconic status. Exquisitely photographed and poignantly described, it emblemized the misery and squalor, backwardness and decay, of one of Western Europe's poorest regions. Reformers, stung by Italy's shame and influenced by modernist principles of urban development, launched programs to demolish the sassi or caves, relocating their (peasant) inhabitants to apartment blocks in the periphery. Anne Parmly Toxey, architecture historian and skilled ethnographer, traces the social, economic, and political processes that, by the 1990s, led to a dramatically different outcome: the restoration of the sassi as a gentrified tourist destination and sometimes movie set. Alas, preserving the past generates disruptive change whose repercussions transcend both the neighborhoods being restored and the time frame of the restoration. Nor has recuperating the sassi done more for the former residents than postwar slum removal. This beautifully written account returns Matera to center stage, but now as an iconic example of historic preservation's quintessentially modern contradictions.' Jane Schneider, City University of New York, USA 'Dr. Anne Toxey is an architect and scholar who exposes for us the history and cultural politics of Matera, the famous site of the Sassi [Stones], the labyrinthine caves of this southern Italian city that have been inhabited since paleolithic times. Anne Toxey first worked there as a conservationist, restoring the Byzantine chiesi rupestri (caves churches) and over the years has watched the cultural politics of late modernity as the planners and politicians negotiated over the restoration and modernization of the city and the Sassi, and their eventual nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage Monument. Now the city is an enhanced tourist attraction in which the ex-slum caves have served as representations of the Holy Land in four films, and are being gentrified as chichi boutiques, luxury hotels, charming apartments and even high tech businesses. Dr. Toxey probes this complex history and the twists of modernity in the evolution of one of the world's most fascinating human creations.' Nelson Graburn, University of California, Berkeley, USA 'Dr. Anne Toxey's book is of timely significance. Taking as an example the Sassi, or cave dwellings, of Matera in Southern Italy, which 1993 have been declared a World Heritage site, she vividly illustrates the problems, difficulties, and conflicts the preservation of cultural heritage encounters in this age of globalization. Many actors and agencies are playing out their interests and agendas. Among them are first, the former inhabitants, expelled and resettled by the Italian government, the new and well-to-do occupants, various preservation groups, the government agencies, local and national, UNESCO, and the influential tourism industry. Within this context Dr. Toxey raises and discusses the important questions about the purpose, value, meaning, procedures and future of preservation as it affects cultural heritage sites all over the world.' Jean-Pierre Protzen, University of California, Berkeley, USA 'Materan Contradictions is an ambitious and successful study. It draws on an impressive range of sources including a large body of scholarship and archival material, travel literature, newspaper articles, oral testimony, and detailed analysis of the built environment. It is also richly illustrated with images, maps, and plans, and features extensive, informative notes and a bibliography. The book will appeal to historians of modern Italy and the Italian South; those pursuing research in European modernism and modernization; scholars interested in urban history; and those specifically interested in architectural and historical preservation.' Canadian Journal of History 'The value of Toxey's text is the in-depth analysis she presents in this focused case study'. Journal of Architectural Conservation

'Anne Toxey guides the reader through a revelatory tour of this important site as it has been transformed both physically and ideologically, especially in recent years, by a potent mix of global capital, the E.U., tourism, and the values of world heritage itself. It is nothing less than a cultural history of preservation, arguably the first such endeavor of book length. Mining archival sources, the built environment, as well as scholarly, theoretical, and literary works, Toxey brings the complexities of this seemingly infinitely layered site into vivid focus with wonderfully literate prose.' Andrew M. Shanken, U.C. Berkeley, USA 'The Matera that is familiar to us through the writing of Carlo Levi and the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini and Mel Gibson is rendered more nuanced, complex, and interesting in Toxey's breathtaking study. Once abandoned, but now preserved and recognized by UNESCO, the unique sassi and the story of their regeneration will be of interest to urban planners, architects, preservationists, geographers, historians, and anthropologists alike. This study provides a terrific microhistory of Italian urbanism. The range of illustrations is reason enough to find a permanent place for this book on your shelf.' D. Medina Lasansky, Cornell University, USA 'Following World War II, the southern Italian town of Matera, partially nestled in a limestone ravine riddled with cave-like dwellings, achieved iconic status. Exquisitely photographed and poignantly described, it emblemized the misery and squalor, backwardness and decay, of one of Western Europe's poorest regions. Reformers, stung by Italy's shame and influenced by modernist principles of urban development, launched programs to demolish the sassi or caves, relocating their (peasant) inhabitants to apartment blocks in the periphery. Anne Parmly Toxey, architecture historian and skilled ethnographer, traces the social, economic, and political processes that, by the 1990s, led to a dramatically different

Author Information

Dr Anne Toxey is Director of Toxey/McMillan Design Associates, and Adjunct Professor, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

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