MINOR CENTRES LOOK TO EUROPE

Territories show a landscape that is formed by material and non-material elements that have accumulated in time and defined historical and cultural identity. Therefore, the management of the cultural heritage and the formulation of development strategies cannot be based on the analysis of a territory that is considered as the sedimentation of the historical identity of a well-determined economic and social system. The aim of this paper is to analyse an actual opportunity for the promotion of the artistic, cultural, environmental and historical heritage of the Mezzogiorno, of both the known heritage and the features that have not been 'discovered' yet: the creation of a European net of quality tourist accommodation located in historical and cultural sites. Such a project will contribute to the promotion of the tourist and commercial supply of areas that are off the large regional tourist paths, and to the rehabilitation of depressed tourist areas, both in rural and urban contexts. The so-called minor centres will be at the centre of this project, especially those centres that are a part "of socio-cultural territorial units, of settlements that have given birth to original landscape and to city-countryside relationships that are typical of a civilisation deeply rooted in the territory. These systems can represent [...] points of reference for tourist itineraries based on the principles of [...] environmental rehabilitation and sustainability, with the purpose of creating a net of dynamic relationships, which aim at a revival of the socio-economic fabric of some of the weakest areas of the Mezzogiorno” (Ruggiero, 2001, p. 92).