Segni e tracce nel paesaggio delle guerre moderne. Un appello in difesa delle architetture militari. De-signs and traces in the landscape of modern wars. A call for protecting military architectures

The text proposes a comparison between the fortifications (bunkers and batteries) erected during the decade 1936-45 along the Mediterranean coasts of Spain and Italy and the network of defense architecture built in modern times. The needs to considering both architectural and landscape Heritage gives opportunity for new debate concerning the matter of conservation. In particular because those latest elements are the oldest armored ruins of modern 20th-century architecture. This group of bunkers and coastal and anti-aircraft batteries is called Muro Mediterráneo for its formal and functional affinity with the Atlantic Wall built by the German army during World War II (circa 1942) along the coast from France to Norway.The comparison with the "network of sentinel", erected by the Christian kingdoms in the Modern Age (XVI-XVIII sec.) along the Mediterranean coast for his defense, showed similar design criteria, location, functionality and materiality, however, while the 'sentinels' are protected by laws, the contemporary casemates are not. Among these, the differences are (without considering the age difference) as the towers have strong volumes emerging from the profile of the territory while bunkers and batteries (with similar geometric models) are mimetically integrated with the topography of the places where they are inserted. The elements of the Mediterráneo Wall form a new anthropic landscape which can be considered a monument for its allegory of tomb and memorial at the same time.