It hasn’t even been half a century since, in 1977, the famous book by Nuto Revelli entitled Il mondo dei vinti was published. A symbolic image, which summed up with powerful evocative efficacy the dramatic process of depopulation and dissolution of traditional Alpine societies during the twentieth century. A phenomenon that found its epicenter in the valleys of Carnia and in the south-east of France, and especially in the Piedmont’s valleys of the Cuneo area, with drop-out rates that will reach even 80-90% of the population. A little over forty years have passed by since Nuto Revelli’s book was published and since then a lot seemed to have changed.
Today many prestigious and successful tourist and winter centers are experiencing a growing crisis of image and public, while the once neglected Valades ousitanes live an unprecedented season, focused on enhancing the trinomial of natural, historical, and cultural heritage. Maira Valley, Ostana in the Po Valley, Paraloup and Rittana in the Stura Valley, the upper Varaita Valley, the phenomena of rebirth are affecting all the Occitan valleys, with interesting resettlement processes that have their engine in who are defined «the new mountaineers».
This renaissance of the Occitan valleys is accompanied by new forms of architecture that focus on the theme of the recovery and reuse of heritage, of dialectical confrontation with environmental and historical contexts, but without forgetting the contemporary and technological innovation.
An Empire of Memory: Overseas British War Cemeteries, 1917–1983
