Earthen architecture in Italy

A culture of earthen buildings has existed in Italy since ancient times, with influences from the Middle East, North Africa, and later from the Transalpine area, the Balkans and Spain. The earliest records of earthen buildings, belonging to the Etruscan civilization, may be dated between the 7th and 6th century BC. The use of earth developed significantly during the time of Greater Greece, when adobe was used for the construction of public buildings and fortified walls. Two examples of earthen fortification are admirable: the fortified city wall of Gela in Sicily, 3 m thick and 8 m high, composed of a stone foundation enclosing a compacted mixture of earth and rubble, and walls made with adobe squares (40 cm x 40 cm), and the rampart of Reghion (Reggio Calabria), built in the same manner, with rammed earth in the middle of two rows of bricks on the higher part. Earth as building material was used in Italy up until the mid-20th century, when sustained economic growth and changing living needs lead to the phasing-out of the constructive techniques and to the disuse of existing earthen buildings, considered as poor constructions inherited from the past. The geographer Osvaldo Baldacci, describes the distribution of earthen buildings in the 1950s, which embraces the whole country, with a predominantly rural use and some examples of urban settlements, as in Sardinia, Calabria and Piedmont.