Traditional irrigation in the shaping of cultural landscapes. The case study of Tricarico, Southern Italy

Abstract

[EN] The paper presents the case study of Tricarico, its gardens and its traditional irrigation systems. In Tricarico the interaction between man and environment has been enriched in the centuries by the contribution of different cultures, amongst which the Arab and Hebrew ones. In this town elaborate techniques of catching and managing of water and soils, in association with complex irrigation systems, have given form to a cultural landscape of great interest. It is possible to recognise at least two different typologies of irrigated agricultural areas. A first one exploits the waters that are diverted from a central stream, then subdivided and led to the fields or to storage basins by means of a complex distribution systems. Another group of vegetable gardens is located at the bottom of the valley by the feet of the Saracena quarter. This agricultural area is articulated on terracings that degrade toward the stream. The irrigation of this second typology of vegetable gardens is provided by the water naturally drained by the rock and stored in some masonry cisterns. A net of open air and underground canals leads the water from these cisterns to the cultivated zones only by means of gravity. The techniques and the knowledge at the base of the operation of the gardens of Tricarico, passed by generations and adapted to the present times, keep on transforming the human demands and the natural resources into cultural heritage.