"Eterna rinascita". Il difficile sviluppo dell'identità urbana tra distruzione, ricostruzione e nuovi schemi formali. Il caso di Argenta (Ferrara, Italia)

The purpose of the paper is to draw critical assessments on regeneration and urban development phenomena that have addressed post-war reconstruction in agro-industrial contexts, of a community that boasts settlement continuity dating back millennia. The case study refers to the city of Argenta just a short distance from the city of Ravenna. The particular settlement conditions  alongside the ancient branch of the Po River  define what was once an essential inland navigation node. Argenta was destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout its very long history, thanks to the wilful roots of the population: after the destruction from the war in April 1945 the city was rebuilt in a very short time. A turbulent rebirth only allowed for the re-composition of fragments of the settlement and monumental heritage of great value: rethinking and reviewing the links, the fragments, the traces of a broken history reveals a possible path for a new vitality in the Third Millennium.