GLI INTERVENTI ITALIANI,DEGLI ANNI ‘30 NELLE AREE

ARCHEOLOGICHE DELLA CITTÀ DI KOS, NEL DODECANESO

Fernando Giannella,

PolitecnicodiBari,DipartimentoDICAR, fernando.giannella@libero.it

ABSTRACT

The objective of the present study is to analyze the methodologies, criteria and design rationale underlying

the Italian interventions of the 1930s at the archaeological sites of Kos town, in the Dodecanese, which

becameanItalianpossessionundertheTreatyofLausanne.

Between 1923 and 1936 the town became an experimental laboratory where the new Italian theories in the

field of architecture, urban planning and conservation were tested in a view to putting in place a

comprehensive planning of the entire urban space. In this framework, the Triest-born architect R. Petracco,

who worked at Rhodes Urban Planning Office, in 1934 was assigned the task of drawing up a new Master

Plan of Kos. The town, partially destroyed by the 1933 earthquake which had brought back to light wide

archeological areas, had already been investigated by L. Laurenzi, charged to carry out a detailed survey to

identify the most promising urban areas in terms of “archaeological potential”. The large number of

archaeological finds led to a new Town Plan for the new Kos that took into account archaeological needs

with a zoning planning, envisaging eight areas destined to the creation of eight archaeological sites. Today

this Master Plan still remains the only one of its kind. The analysis proposed by the present study has been

made possible by the observation of the artifacts still in situ and by the interpretation of documents related to

theselatteravailableinlocalArchives.

Parolechiave/Key-words: Dodecanese,Kos,Italianarchitecture,archaeologicalsite,urbanplanning