Climate Change and Historical Food-Related Architecture Abandonment: Evidence from Italian Case Studies
Abstract
1. Introduction
- Materials and Methods. Sources are listed and methodology is illustrated. Methodology consists of two subsections:
- The theoretical concept of climatic indicators, as an answer to some environmental history questions, is introduced, and the tools elaborated for the analysis of case studies are illustrated.
- The Italian pyramid of the UNESCO Mediterranean diet is introduced, and the connection between food-related architecture and corresponding food specialties is established.
- Results and Discussion, where case studies, selected based on their significance within Italian foods listed in the UNESCO Mediterranean Diet, are studied. The selection was carried out by highlighting some architectures that supported the production of the most iconic Italian food specialties: olive oil, wine and wholegrains. Each case study was analyzed in a separate subsection. In each of them, climatic factors connected to the building and abandonment of the corresponding case study are analyzed, also adopting the introduced tools. In the final part of each subsection, the state of the corresponding enhancement processes is studied, and some focus points for their interpretation, based on their potential as climatic indicators, are listed. Then, results from previous analysis are discussed and summarized. Results are reported in a table which together with two charts, is part of the toolkit provided to support future analysis regarding the relationship between food-related architecture and climate change at a global level.
- Conclusions, where a summary of the research results is given.
2. Materials and Methods
- Bibliographic data and research results from the literature regarding the historical reconstruction of climatic changes, history of technologies and local productions, reports regarding the history of selected case studies, descriptions of UNESCO properties from the UNESCO lists and UNESCO tentative list dossiers;
- Data regarding the enhancement of rural cultural heritage from academic studies and institutional databases and websites;
- Results from onsite inspections.
- Food-related architecture and climatic factors are introduced as a resource for environmental history. This approach focuses on the lack of historical data series regarding historical long-term climatic changes and on the potential of some food-related architectures in covering this gap. This issue was addressed by introducing the theoretical concept of climatic indicators, and two charts were elaborated to test the potential of selected food-related architectures from this perspective. The first chart illustrates all the possible interconnections between food-related architecture and permanent and variable climatic factors. The second allows for the description of variations in the relationship between those artefacts and climatic changes, also introducing the variable of technological advancement. Finally, some examples from the international scenario are provided.
- The second phase focuses on food-related architecture connected to the Mediterranean diet—inscribed in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Values List—and on the so-called pyramid of the Italian diet: a graphical representation of the ideal combination of Italian food specialties listed in the diet. In this phase, different sources—bibliography, website data, institutional documents, etc.—were adopted. Then, a new graphical representation of the pyramid was introduced: symbols of food-related architecture have been added in correspondence to those specialties located at the base of the pyramid and suggested for daily use. Their role as elements of the rural cultural landscape in Italy is also introduced, with a special focus on the relationship between the theoretical concept of nature and climatic changes.
2.1. Food-Related Architecture and Climatic Factors
- The first group includes fixed climatic factors: latitude, longitude, altitude and exposure.
- The second group includes variable climatic factors: temperature, solar radiation, wind and water resources from renewable and meteoric sources.
- Temperature: cellars, heat-insulated factories, warehouses, etc. [9].
- Solar irradiation: processing of products and their drying, either using removable structures—typically made of wood—or using the roofs of built architecture.
- Water: irrigation of crops and use as an energy source. In both cases, they are managed through the construction of dedicated structures: aqueducts, wells and canals in the first case and water mills in the second.
- The first phase refers to the initial climatic conditions: sometimes climate was an obstacle for the productive process, sometimes it was simply an opportunity to be exploited.
- The second refers to the construction of food-related architecture that managed those climatic conditions, either by removing obstacles to production or by optimizing the opportunities provided.
- The third refers to the most critical phase of this process, the change in the initial climatic conditions.
- The fourth refers to the decommissioning of food-related architecture as an effect of changes in initial climatic conditions.
- The fifth refers to current climatic conditions: when data on historical climate change are not available or cannot be cross-referenced and correlated with the abandonment of the structures under examination, even current climatic conditions, when compared with the characteristics of historical architecture, can reveal the changes in the climate that have taken place.
2.2. Mediterranean Diet Pyramid and the Rural Cultural Landscape in Italy
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Italian Case Studies: Wine Canteens, Olive and Wheat Mills
- Their adoption in the production of three food specialties listed in the UNESCO Mediterranean Diet in Italy, all inscribed at the base of the pyramid: olive oil, local wine and cereals;
- Significance within the local cultural landscape and as elements of local intangible and tangible cultural heritage but not included in the Italian List of Cultural Assets [27];
- Decommissioning as an effect of climatic changes;
- Significant connections with climatic issues: potential as climatic indicators;
- Potential in brand marketing for local productions or/and rural regeneration projects [28].
3.1.1. Pietragalla and Its Wine District
- Relationship between rural historical architecture, cultural landscape and its changes as an effect of climatic changes: The adoption of outputs of environmental history research in the enhancement of rural cultural assets.
- History of resilience in agriculture: Valuable examples from Italian traditional cropping can be connected to the storytelling of this cultural asset.
- Enhancement of intangible values: traditional rituals, festivals, lyrics and costumes connected to the history of rock-cut canteens.
- Elements of social issues: sharing workspaces and tools in historical rural villages.
3.1.2. Olive Oil Architecture: Rock-Cut Apulian Mills
- Introduction to the small-scale Ice Age (1590–1850): effects on crops and on production;
- The transition from animal power to mechanical power in the operation of rural machineries;
- Tangible values of rural rock-cut architecture;
- Intangible values associated with the use of rock-cut mills, the role of women, children and animals and related rural rituals.
3.1.3. The Mills’s Valley in Gragnano
- Climate change and territorial vulnerability;
- Risk monitoring and control;
- Inclusion in the environmental history network of climate change-related disasters: floods, droughts, landslides, etc.;
- Resilience to climate change: relocation and transformation of productive districts.
3.2. Discussion
- Climate indicators can be a gateway to climate change issues and enrich the storytelling of the corresponding cultural assets;
- Climate indicators can enable the creation of dedicated networks;
- Climate integrators can provide access to additional tangible and intangible values.
4. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
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Name | Focus Points for Interpretation |
---|---|
Porta Castello di Sopra Mill | Location beside one of the gates of the Castle Potential added value for the interpretation of the Mills’s Valley: Connection to the castle |
Lo Monaco Mill |
|
Forma Mill | The most ancient mill of the valley, built immediately below the spring. Potential added value for the interpretation of the Mills’s Valley: the beginning of the history of the Valley and of the district |
Grasso Mill | Accessible only from the stream bed Potential added value for the interpretation of the Mills’s Valley: reshaping the natural river |
Scomparso Mill | Accessible only from the stream bed Potential added value for the interpretation of the Mills’s Valley: reshaping the natural river |
Porta Castell di Sotto Mill | Accessible only from the stream bed Potential added value for the interpretation of the Mills’s Valley: reshaping the natural river |
Scola Mill | Several historical renovations Potential added value for the interpretation of the Mills’s Valley: historical reuses and stratifications |
La Fusara Mill |
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La Mena Mill | Two towers: the first in tuff, the second in limestone like the main building Potential added value for the interpretation of the Mills’s Valley: different materials |
Santa Lucia Mill |
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Grotticella Mill |
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La Pergola Mill |
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Type | Case Study | Food Connected | Climatic Issue Connected | Type of Management | Region | Period | Climatic Change | Enhancement |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Water Mills | Mills’s Valley | Durum wheat | Water | Adoption as an energy source (regular water force) | Campania | 13th/20th | Recurrent floods of the Vernotico river due to climatic changes (see Figure 17) | Yes (public) |
Olive Oil Mills | Apulian Underground Mills (diffused) | Olive oil | Temperature | Optimization of temperature for fluidification (18 °C minimum) | Apulia | 15th/20th | Rising winter temperatures due to the passage from “small glacial era” to “temperate climate, confirmed by current values (see Figure 12) | Some (mostly private properties) |
Pietragalla Canteen | Pietragalla Wine District | Wine | Temperature | Logistics (canteens were just between the yards and the village)/internal climate | Basilicata | 16th/20th | Increase in cultivation quota due to increase in temperatures (up to 800 m. a.s.l.) | Yes (public/private) |
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Varriale, R.; Ciaravino, R. Climate Change and Historical Food-Related Architecture Abandonment: Evidence from Italian Case Studies. Heritage 2025, 8, 423. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8100423
Varriale R, Ciaravino R. Climate Change and Historical Food-Related Architecture Abandonment: Evidence from Italian Case Studies. Heritage. 2025; 8(10):423. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8100423
Chicago/Turabian StyleVarriale, Roberta, and Roberta Ciaravino. 2025. "Climate Change and Historical Food-Related Architecture Abandonment: Evidence from Italian Case Studies" Heritage 8, no. 10: 423. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8100423
APA StyleVarriale, R., & Ciaravino, R. (2025). Climate Change and Historical Food-Related Architecture Abandonment: Evidence from Italian Case Studies. Heritage, 8(10), 423. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage8100423