Moncalieri through time - water, landscape, heritage, and resilience

In October 2000, the province of Turin, Italy, endured a severe weather event, suffering through 36 hours of relentless rain. This storm triggered widespread chaos: bridges collapsed, rivers overflowed into towns, major highways were shut down, and rescue teams had to airlift citizens to safety in firefighters' helicopters.

By the time the rain stopped, the situation was devastating; 10 municipalities and 100 districts were isolated, 15,000 residents were affected, and the cost of the damage was estimated as some billions of euros.

The horror of the disaster was vividly captured throughout the week by La Stampa, a Turin-based major national Italian daily newspaper. A subsequent report from the weekly Il Nostro Tempo, dated 22 October 2000, further highlighted the aftermath: approximately 8,000 individuals were displaced in Piedmont, numerous roads and railways disrupted, and between 80,000 to 90,000 people left without electricity.

Given the scale of this damage caused by heavy rains, one cannot help but ask 'why?'  Why did such heavy rains cause catastrophic damage, especially given the region's lengthy experience with similar weather conditions?

 

Figure 1: Screenshots from the recordings during the October 2000 flooding. The footage is taken from the DVD "Eventi alluvionali in Piemonte 2000-2002" by Arpa Piemonte (Regional Agency for Environmental Protection), produced by Fabula, from the "Video Archive" section, which includes recordings from November 2–6, 1994; October 13–16, 2000; and June 4–6, 2002. Courtesy of the ARPA Piemonte. Licensed with Creative Commons Attribution license. A portion of the footage is also available on the YouTube page of the Consiglio Regionale del Piemonte (Piedmont Regional Council).

In our Advancing Cultural Heritage Governance for Resilient Climate Adaptation (AGREE) project, one of our goals is to explore new governance models for cultural heritage that support climate adaptation and enhance community resilience in urban contexts at risk of flooding. Investigating past disasters is an integral part of this endeavor. Asking 'why did it happen this way in the past?' is crucial.

Without understanding the past, we risk repeating the same mistakes. However, the AGREE project recognises that for effective climate adaptation and community resilience, learning from the past must be integrated with future-oriented, scenario-based thinking due to the uncertainties that lie ahead. To this end, while we work with existing international datasets, we also gather local data from our case studies to identify future trends and scenarios. This baseline is augmented with experiences from past disasters. In doing so, we aim to incorporate memory as a component of future policies and decision-making processes.

Moncalieri, located along the Po River, crossed by Sangone and Chisola streams, below the hills of Turin and administratively under the metropolitan city of Turin, is one of AGREE's three case studies, exemplifying the unique challenges and opportunities in managing urban heritage within flood-prone areas. (You can read about the UK case study here, and the Norway case study here.)

With its rich heritage, intricate relationship with the Po River, and history marked by floodings, Moncalieri provides critical insights into how cultural heritage can help us navigate through the complexities of climate adaptation and community resilience.

 

Figure 2: View of the Moncalieri Castle and its village from the Po river. The painting, probably made by Luigi Baldassarre Reviglio in the first half of the 19th century, was commissioned by the Marquises of San Germano, from the Sanmartino family. [Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali. – Private Collection. Digital reuse is licenced with CC-BY 4.0. https://catalogo.beniculturali.it/detail/HistoricOrArtisticProperty/0100441131 ]

A history of water: urban heritage of Moncalieri

Moncalieri is a multi-layered town that embodies centuries of urban transformation within its current urban fabric. From its medieval castle, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, to its agricultural lands, and from its historical centre to the traces of a working-class history intertwined with nineteenth-century industrialization, Moncalieri exemplifies the complex relationship between water, urban heritage, flooding disasters, and urban development.

 

Moncalieri in November 2024. Photo by Giulia Bergamo.

Moncalieri historic centre in November 2024. Photo by Giulia Bergamo.

Moncalieri's geopolitically strategic position played a crucial role in becoming one of the main administrative centres of the savoy dynasty, controlling the principal routes between Turin, southern Piedmont, and the surrounding regions. It also dominates the Po and Chisola Rivers, which were vitally important not only as resources for economic activities but also as military defence infrastructures along with the hills of Turin. In medieval times, the mills along the Po and Chisola rivers were economic assets that supported agricultural production, although primarily utilized by nobles and religious institutions. The need for defense was met by constructing Moncalieri Castle, which over time became a royal residence.

As Moncalieri evolved into a complex urban settlement over the centuries, water resources continued to play a crucial role in the everyday lives of artisans and in agricultural activities. The city gradually developed religious, civil, and road infrastructures that enhanced communications and commercial activities. Meanwhile, the Savoy Castle and the 'Porta Molendinorum', an ancient urban gate, continued to regulate the passage and control of mill-related commercial and production activities. The religious infrastructures - new monasteries and churches, along with the road network connecting them - played a role in Moncalieri's development during the 17th and 18th centuries, a period of urban expansion and economic consolidation.

With nineteenth-century industrialisation, Moncalieri's urban character began to change, though the importance of the river system remained undiminished; the Po was still essential for survival. While the historic urban centre preserved its significance, the city transformed into a residential area for Turin's bourgeoisie. Immigrant working-class residents and families occupied the outskirts of the city; while Turin's bourgeoisie began constructing villas and residences, turning Moncalieri into a privileged appendage to the Savoy capital.

The 20th century was marked by a profound transformation of the territory, with demographic growth and the establishment of new residential and industrial districts. However, this intense development did not erase the historical identity of Moncalieri, which still preserves its architectural and landscape heritage. The connection with water and the territory remains a crucial interpretive key to understanding Moncalieri's urban development over the centuries.

An interlinked history of Moncalieri with floodings

While the water resources had this important role in the urban development of the city, they have also posed significant threats to Moncalieri. The Po River had a strong impact not only over the territory and infrastructures, but also on the Moncalieri community. Its geographical location, together with a fast and sometimes unplanned urbanization, has made the territory more exposed to the effects of heavy rains and river flooding.

In fact, even today, despite several individual planning instruments and future strategies, there are no appropriate planning implementations that integrate sustainable urban development mechanisms addressing hydrogeological hazards. Moreover, throughout Moncalieri’s history, riverbeds have been reduced and the original hydrographic network has been modified, which contributed to the severity of disasters.

One of the first major disasters of the 20th century occurred in 1949, when the Po overflowed following torrential rains. Moncalieri was particularly affected by the waters of the Po, Chisone and Sangone that flooded the countryside and part of the city. The following flood of 1977 reinforced awareness of the need for better land management and the protection of vulnerable areas.

Two of the most infamous disasters are those of November 1994 and October 2000. The first left a deep mark in the collective memory, not only of Moncalieri, but also of large part of Piedmont. It is still a trauma in many individuals’ personal history in Piedmont. Only six years later, in 2000, the city was hit again, particularly because of its location at the confluence of the Po and Sangone rivers. This 2000 disaster caused a lot of damage to the city's districts, including Vallere and Borgo Mercato. More recent history, however, includes the 2016 flood, which further highlighted the exposure and vulnerability of the area.

Integrating historical data with narratives on memory for future decision-making

As mentioned at the start of this blog post, one of the main ambitions of AGREE is to introduce the ‘memory of past disasters’ as an input into decision-making processes and governance mechanisms. Achieving this ambition requires working with local, national, and international data to understand the components of disaster risks that threaten the territory.

For the case of Moncalieri, existing data categorises the territory into three risk zones for fluvial (e.g. river or stream) risks. Furthermore, it is possible to trace changes in land use through publicly available international datasets. Additionally, data is also available for understanding listed buildings and protection areas in relation to heritage.

However, when it comes to memory, it would be unrealistic to suggest that any historical or current data could fully capture it. In his famous essay Les Lieux de Mémoire, Pierre Nora argued that memory is a living, evolving phenomenon, shaped by society, emotion, and context, while history is a problematic and incomplete reconstruction of the past.

Building on Nora’s point, AGREE goes a step further to understand and provide narratives of memory constructed through deep, archival local research - not merely to extract data but to uncover stories that complement existing datasets.

In this way, we aim to provide a deeper understanding and insights into the intricate relationship between cultural heritage, climate adaptation, and community resilience. One of the final outcomes of this research will be to create a digital platform designed to communicate these insights and understandings to a diverse network of users. By doing so, as outlined in previous blog posts, the AGREE project remains committed to advancing this relationship within the scope of cultural heritage governance.