SHARING HISTORY AND INTERPRETATION FOR UNDERGROUND BUILT HERITAGE: THE CASE-STUDY OF THE PISCINA MIRABILIS

The presentation delves into the relationship between historical research and community engagement, mainly in the context of the Underground Built Heritage (UBH). The work, result of the COST Action CA18110, uses the case study of “Piscina Mirabilis” in Bacoli (NA) to explore this dynamic. Historical research is not confined within its disciplinary boundaries. It must engage with theoretical and practical issues, often dealing with unforeseen matters and social involvements that shape the heritage characterisation. This necessitates an openness to local communities while maintaining objectivity. The presentation highlights the potential friction between history and community memory in interpreting UBH. It explores the demands historians often face, which involve confronting different perspectives and languages. This opens up interpretative issues on history/memory connections, handling the polysemy of sources, re-signification of places, and cultural transitions. The presentation underscores the importance of fostering an open dialogue among scholars, stakeholders, institutions, and local community. This dialogue, based on strategic transitions, serves as a means of local empowerment. It helps participants share old and new meanings, bringing places out of the shadow cone of no-value or misconception. The case study provides an opportunity to analyse how historians deal with participation and the ever-evolving signification of places. By merging history, traditions, meanings, and memories, the presentation offers a set of problems induced by tourism in terms of community identity and selfrecognition. Finally, through semi-structured interviews with Piscina Mirabilis’s stakeholders, it outlines potential development pathways, governance mechanisms, and current challenges for the site’s development, reuse, and valorisation. Interaction with different local stakeholders, both public and private, aids in understanding their viewpoints. This is a crucial step towards a shared interpretation linking history with traditions and supporting multi-stakeholder engagement in the valorisation process. This approach underscores the importance of collaboration and inclusiveness to heritage preservation and valorisation.