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The 2016-17 earthquakes hit a particularly fragile area of the Italian Central Apennines, already affected by a progressive process of depopulation. ‘Living with earthquakes’ is a long-term research project and a summer school promoted by the Department of Civil and Construction Engineering and Architecture (DICEA) of the Università Politecnica delle Marche in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and a broad international partnership.

It is critical to consider the seismic nature of these areas as a constitutive, and not extraordinary phenomenon – a characteristic that has marked the history of the Apennine area, the evolution of its landscape, its townscape and its communities. Our focus is on the province of Fermo with its variety of small and medium-sized hilltop towns that offer a rich field for investigation and experimentation, starting from an analysis of seismic damage to the urban fabric and branching out to wider questions of tangible and intangible heritage.

The earthquake, despite its tragic nature, can be seen as a unique opportunity to rewrite the history of these places, starting from citizens’ experience and the collective memory of local communities, and making full use of archival research material.

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