Architectural Heritage and Sustainable Development of Small and Medium Cities in South Mediterranean Regions

Earthen architecture conservation is one of the most important facets and challenges of this Region's heritage. As earthen architecture has been chosen as a priority by the World Heritage Committee, it proves that the interest of the international community for its conservation meets the reflection of the numerous participants to this Seminar.
The conservation of World Heritage sites of the Mediterranean Region will certainly benefit from the results of this research and I wish you every success in this endeavor.

Francesco Bandarin
UNESCO World Heritage Centre


The South Mediterranean villages and towns are characterized by the sense of an ancestral pact with nature.
Scents, colours, flavours, sounds and textures: lands, threshing floors, sublime architectures of plain adobe houses; of woods that smell of wood, of old and fossil firewood; of scarce and dry grass, of austere and arid trees, of subsistence economy and solutions to survive and to live on, of starry nights of mythological skies, of fire heat from purple suns, of patriarchal unquestioned orders, of Nature's gastronomy in a wise combination of tastes, of handwoven clothes full of pockets and possibilities that smell of time. In sum, our everlasting Heritage over the centuries.

Justo Nieto Nieto
Polytechnic University of Valencia