The role of historical agro-industrial buildings in the study of rural territory

Industrial archaeology, thoroughly widespread in extra-urban environments, has shown to be of significant importance to analyse the transformation of the rural territory, as well as recognise the value of these constructions, meant both in truly architectonic and landscape terms, and as historical testimonies to the social and economic evolution of farming societies between the 19th and the 20th centuries.The strict relationship between territorial development and the presence of these buildings is dealt with in this paper by analysing the land cover use, the crop productivity and the demographic historical changes. All these aspects are at the same time the cause and effect of the original agro- industrial use of these structures and of the new destination choices. In this light, this paper tackles the knowledge and cataloguing of a sample of historical agro-industrial constructions situated in two provinces of southern Italy, in the region of Puglia, to propose suitable ways of integrally recovering and reusing them, demonstrating how the social, economic and territorial link could be already maintained even if a new use were proposed.