Civita di Bagnoregio 2023
Over the course of four weeks the intensive program delved into Civita’s urban history and the preservation challenges common to many hill towns in the vicinity. Conditions such as geotechnical instability, natural erosion, and dynamic shifts in social and economic landscapes have led to the disappearance of historic architecture and traditional ways of life.
The program was centered around an engagement with Civita’s intricate history. The students began their journey by tracing the town’s evolution from its inception more than 2,000 years ago through the Etruscan and Roman epochs, its flourishing during the Medieval and Renaissance periods, and its eventual decline following a catastrophic earthquake in 1695. Through this exploration the students learned about the geotechnical challenges faced by Civita and the engineering interventions undertaken to mitigate them. The program also deepened the students’ knowledge about the use of local materials in architecture over various eras. The students focused on principles of architectural conservation and its role in crafting potential solutions. Engaging with residents and authorities through lectures and discussions, the students gained insight into the place’s transformation from a “dying town” to a sought-after tourist destination.
A diverse array of activities enriched the program’s framework. Students embarked on site visits in Civita di Bagnoregio and neighboring historic hill towns, explored the Calanchi Valley on foot, attended lectures, participated in discussions, and employed a blend of manual and digital techniques to measure and record elevations, plans, and sections, meticulously surveying materials and conditions. These research elements formed the foundation for devising strategies for architectural conservation and adaptive reuse. For the final project each student was required to produce an adaptive-reuse plan for a chosen historic site. The students were able to integrate the physical constraints and opportunities of the sites with insights from local professionals, authorities, and residents to shape proposals that harmonized echoes of the past with aspirations for the future.
Throughout the program a diverse range of lectures was offered by a mix of local and international specialists hailing from fields such as architecture, design, geology, conservation, structural engineering, urban planning, and cultural heritage. The aim was to provide the YSoA students with practical insights that would enhance both their summer-program projects and future professional paths.
Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Astra Zarina, an architect and educator affiliated with the University of Washington, Civita di Bagnoregio hosted summer programs for architecture students for many years. This annual tradition became deeply rooted in the Civita community until it ended two decades ago. The arrival of the YSoA summer program in 2023 reignited excitement among the locals, or Civitonici. Yale students were welcomed with kindness and embraced as if returning members of the Civita community, and their academic contributions were genuinely appreciated by our hosts.
The Civita di Bagnoregio 2023 experience is best characterized by the students, as follows:
Erin Bascom (MArch ’24): “Anticipation built as we made our way through the narrow streets of Bagnoregio—breaths held around each successive turn—waiting for Civita to reveal itself. Our fears that the pictures might have inflated the magnitude of the landscape vanished as our eyes traced the long, narrow bridge up to Civita, looking at the same view that has left millions of visitors in awe, which we would proudly come to call home for the month to follow.”
Grace Brooks (MArch ’24): “This is the best day of my life!”
Odette James (MArch ’24): “During our time in the valley we greeted donkeys, picked wild herbs, surveyed vast fields of olive trees, watched for packs of wild boar walking along the same path, and stumbled upon herds of cows and sheep. One morning, nearing the end of our time in Civita, the valley was cloaked in a thick fog and the town appeared as if it were caught in a cloud. As we walked around the perimeter of the town, we were engulfed in a white veil of mist. At moments like these we were able to witness the singular and unique existence of this beautiful and precarious place.”
Tong Hsu (MArch ’24): “Beneath Civita di Bagnoregio lies myriad passages and cantinas carved out over time: spaces formed by the absence of material. The excavated stone, having rested in its place for millennia, was repurposed as building material for the town above.”
Barbara Nasila (MArch ’24): “The warmth of the people touched us deeply as they shared their love for this cherished place, its rich history, and its promising future. In the heart of Civita the community embraced us, revealing its distinct character and weaving a tapestry of tradition welcoming both old and new.”
Holden Miles (MArch ’24): “The resonance of the Civita summer program was in its intimacy. While other YSoA summer programs have focused on big cities and their grand projecting influences, Civita’s unique situation offered a pedagogical approach that prioritized and indulged in a prolonged personal involvement with the local context.”
Brent Kokonya (MArch ’24): “Civita has been portrayed as dying for a long time, but my experience of the town and its surroundings only showed how alive it is.”
Hao Wang (MArch ’24): “During our visit to Sebastiano’s farm I had the chance to talk to a family member. With his broken English, mixed with some Italian and French words, and my broken French, we talked about his childhood and how similar life in the Italian countryside is to Chinese village life. I was moved by the strong connection he has with the land. Before we left the farm he counseled, ‘You must be crazy about life—it is the only way we can survive.’”
Kevin Yang (MArch ’24): “Dante was wrong. There is another circle of Hell: lesser known, but all the more unbearable, this special state of anguish is reserved for the bright-eyed hopefuls of the world. Here the damned are given a taste of Paradise, a moment of escape from the oppression of the Western day and momentary membership to a greater legacy. We were robbed of a normal life and upon return consumed by a sense of strangeness and uncertainty about how to use the hours of our lives. Day by night, by unwavering day, we sit in muted torture—wracking our minds for how to represent an experience so perfect that words truly and simply cannot hope to do it justice.”
Xinyi Xie (MArch ’24): “Despite—or rather because of—the rain, Civita at first sight had a dreamlike “castle in the sky” appearance. Its tangible layers of clay and stone sit apart somehow from the rest of planet Earth. From the town of Bagnoregio, Civita emerged misty and veiled in a dense fog full of birdsong, connected only by a pendulous bridge sloping upward seemingly infinitely. The ‘dying’ town loomed in a heavenly (if somewhat gray and wet) manner.”
Norma Barbacci is a critic at the Yale School of Architecture and principal of Norma Barbacci Preservation Consultants LLC. She has more than 30 years of experience in international preservation and directed programs at the World Monuments Fund from 2001 to 2007.
