Garfagnana, a project for the rebirth.

In recent years the Italian territory, and in particular the internal areas, whose economy was once based on the agro-forestry-pastoral system, has increasingly depopulated, in favor of urban areas. This trend is shared with many other European and Mediterranean counties and the European authorities, through the most careful control of regional organizations, tries to fight it, with funds aimed at the economic revival of these areas, in particular through tourism. Tuscany, in accordance with national guidelines, has identified four areas to allocate 3.74 million euros to encourage their rebirth and avoid depopulation. Among these, there is Garfagnana, a territory endowed with great natural riches, such as the Apuan Alps, and the presence of waters and rivers, and anthropic-cultural assets, such as the numerous villages with a thousand-year history, marked by Lombard domination. However, Garfagnana is also among those areas most at risk of depopulation due to the progressive aging of the population and abandonment in favor of the valley. After the Second World War, in fact, with the radical change of the economic system, all those rural settlements, that previously survived self-sufficient on the slopes of the Apuan Alps, were gradually abandoned, both for the distance from the essential services and for the difficulty of moving. These characteristics meant that in the ranking of the 300 Tuscan municipalities with the greatest development difficulties, 21 Municipalities included in this area appear in the first 30 places. These abandonments led not only to the depopulation of an entire region and the consequent loss of services, but also to the impoverishment of the landscape heritage, due to the progressive invasion of the forest on agricultural areas, pastures and chestnut trees. How can we stop this decline? How can we avoid the loss of an immense territorial, landscape, cultural heritage? The Architecture Department of the University of Florence, in collaboration with the Tuscan Regional Committee of the Federciclismo and the Union of Municipalities of the Garfagnana, have worked on a project for the tourist redevelopment of the municipalities of Careggine and Fabbriche di Vergemoli, on whose territories numerous attractive emergencies persist: the Vagli Lake, formed artificially with the construction of a hydroelectric dam by the Edron Stream by SELT Valdarno (today ENEL spa), which submerged some villages, today visible only during sporadic maintenance work ( the last in 1994, the next in 2021). There is the Grotta del Vento, in the municipality of Fabbriche di Vergemoli, which today has three internal tourist routes, but not a collective accommodation and information structure. Also the forest paths between the municipalities of Careggine and Fabbriche di Vergemoli, would constitute, if enhanced, a magnificent opportunity for sports tourism in the Garfagnana. The University of Florence has the purpose with its CONOSCICINBICI. Disvelare e Mostrare, of enhancing these attractions, identifying definite itineraries and installing panels and structures that host dedicated exhibitions, thus expanding the knowledge and survey of such a rich area. With these means the hope is to be able to reverse the trend, to revive the Garfagnana and to reinvent it, transporting it from its agricultural past to its future based on knowledge and respect for its millenary culture.