ABSTRACT
Urban historic conservation, a concept defined at the end of the nineteenth century by the pioneering works of Camillo Sitte (Wieckzorek, 1982) and entered in the urban planning practice in early twentieth century (Giovannoni, 1931), has found an important place in the world of cultural heritage. Indeed, limiting consideration to the World Heritage List, urban heritage appears to be one of the most important, if not the most important of all heritage categories with about 300 out of 936 sites inscribed in the World Heritage List in 2011 being urban historic cities. Urban heritage reflects not only the values normally embodied in monuments (memory, artistic values etc.), but it also represents civic identities and the living expression of historic evolution. In more recent times, urban heritage has also become an invaluable asset for economic development, mostly, albeit not exclusively, linked to the growth of the global tourism industry.
