City of Water. The Water Heritage as the Core of the Urban Identity of Salerno City: Don Tullio's 18th Century Fountain

Investigating the complexity of a historical urban context, the evolution of its forms and the role of its tangible and intangible heritage requires an analysis of the architectural, artistic and constructional events strongly linked to cultural, social and environmental dynamics. This study proposes a key that considers the relationship between the built environmental and water resources, to recognize the evolutionary phases of the urban environment and the role of the historical hydraulic heritage in the current contemporary context, through the architectural vicissitude of an artefact symbolic of the complex city-patrimony-water relationship in the city of Salerno: the eighteenth-century don Tullio's fountain. The paper focuses on the role of water-related works and highlights the strategic importance of the conservation and recovery of hydraulic architectures in the context of sustainable development, promoting a holistic approach that integrates environmental, historical and social aspects. Using the city of Salerno as a case study, the paper analyses fountains as examples of engineering and architectural works that bear witness to the history and culture of a place and proposes strategies for their enhancement and protection.