Preservare la memoria di una comunità: restauro e riuso del monte di prestiti di Piazza Armerina (Enna)

Rediscovering and highlighting the architectural traces that testify to the past of a community does not necessarily translate into the recovery of large monumental complexes. Frequently, the imprint of history can be found in more ‘humble’ public buildings which, once ceased their original functions went out of use and then gradually abandoned. This fate unites numerous Monti di Pietà: public establishments that developed throughout Europe since the Renaissance period. In Sicily, until the first decades of the 20th century, together with numerous charitable practices, these institutions carried out lending activities on the pledge of precious and non-precious objects, offering an indispensable service to the less wealthy population. Of these bodies, today remains the memory of the social task covered, certainly not without its shadows, but essential for the suffering class, often cruelly exploited by the phenomenon of the loan sharking. A role whose implications appear to be of great interest, not only in ethical, economic and socio-anthropological terms but also as a tangible presence, still often full of cultural features and genius loci. Focusing on the Monte di Prestiti of Piazza Armerina, in the province of Enna, this paper intends to show how reuse can be useful to preserve not only the material values but also the processes, ideas, prejudices, inclinations and tastes of a whole society.