The Friuli Model is based on a
legislative approach and a set of standards that enabled one of the most
effective post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction programmes in the history
of Italy to be implemented.
As previously highlighted, the initial step involved the
State entrusting the Regional Government with the authority to delegate
specific functions to the local Municipalities, which greatly streamlined the
decision-making process. The delegation was formalised by Italian Decree Law
No. 227 dated May 13 1976, then converted into Italian Law No. 336 dated
May 29 1976, following a proposal by Aldo Moro, the President of the
Council of Ministers, to Antonio Comelli, the President of Friuli Venezia
Giulia. The Region rose to the challenge and, with adequate and uninterrupted
State financing, embarked on a project of an unprecedented scale, one that
would rarely be repeated in the years that followed. The Regional
Administration successfully managed 72 per cent of construction sites, leaving
only 28 per cent under the direct control of the State.
The autonomy granted to the
Regional Government was confirmed and enacted in Italian Law No. 546 dated
August 8 1977, titled Reconstruction of areas in the Regions of Friuli
Venezia Giulia and Veneto affected by the 1976 earthquake, also known as
the ‘First Reconstruction Law’. This legislation set out the broad guidelines
and criteria to which regional authorities had to adhere when carrying out
interventions in the sectors of productive activities, housing construction,
and public works. Article 1 specifically stated that the allocated funds were
to be used «for the economic and social development and reorganization of the
territory, to promote industrial and agricultural production, to strengthen
services, to increase employment and to safeguard the ethnic and cultural
heritage of the local populations, within a framework of hydrogeological
safety». Ultimately, the long-term goal was forward-thinking: to transform the
reconstruction process into a growth engine for a peripheral area within the
context of European economic development.
In line with requests from the
relevant Municipalities, the regional bodies were granted significant
legislative powers over intervention methods, procedures, and guidelines, as
well as the authority to define development plans and set contribution amounts
for individual residential properties. They were also given the power to
provide support for industry, commerce, crafts, tourism, agriculture, and
construction. To this end, Regional Authorities were able to draw on technical
and scientific support from State administration offices, particularly as
significant interventions were planned in specific domains which had been under
State control: these included the restoration of the ‘Pontebbana’ SS 13 state road between Pontebba and
Malborghetto, the Ponte del Giulio-Barcis section of the ‘Val di Zoldo and
Valcellina’ SS 251 state road, the continuation of work on the Udine-Tarvisio
section of the A23 motorway, and the double-tracking of the Udine-Tarvisio
railway line. Most notably, the State University of Udine was officially
established in the 1977–78 academic year, with the first courses scheduled
for the following year. This brought to a close the long campaign that had been
spearheaded by the Committee for the Establishment of a Friulian University
since 1972.
To ensure the effectiveness of
the delegation, the Regional Government was also authorised to determine «the
methods of intervention and initiatives, as well as the related procedures»,
including by derogation from existing regulations, such as those relating to
the general accounting of the State, provided that «compliance with the general
principles of the legal system» was ensured. Overall, this delegation of powers
reinforced the autonomy granted to Friuli Venezia Giulia by the Constitution of
the Italian Republic in 1947.
Based on the initial responses to damaged or
destroyed homes set out in Regional Law No. 17 dated June 17 1976,
Italian Law No. 546 dated August 8 1977 represented a significant
milestone for Friuli. By assuring the population that they could remain in the
territory, even in temporary settlements, the region was empowered to begin
reconstruction based on the widespread belief that Friuli should be rebuilt
‘where it was and as it was’.
During this phase, the Regional administration
had equipped itself with a specific piece of legislation: Regional Law No.
53 dated September 6 1976, which established a technical-administrative
body that would prove crucial in managing the post-earthquake crisis. This
body, the Extraordinary General Secretariat, effectively undertook the role
assigned to the Presidency of the Region for the recovery of economic and
social life in the territory, a process explained in more detail below.
Ultimately, in the summer of 1977, the Government
of Friuli Venezia Giulia supplemented Regional Law No. 17, enacted in 1976, and
finalised the technical regulatory framework with Regional Law No. 30 dated
June 20 1977, titled New procedures for the static and functional
recovery of buildings impacted by telluric events. This legislation was
important not only because of the financial commitment it required, but also
because it formalised a series of key political decisions: prioritising repairs
over reconstructions wherever possible and economically feasible; implementing
price lists; setting technical and economic parameters for the design of works;
and establishing the solidarity-based, non-compensatory nature of the
contributions assigned to private individuals, public bodies and other entities.
The Law was very complex and was supplemented by
important technical instruments. It specified operational mechanisms and
procedures, and established the right of citizens to choose between private and
public (delegated) intervention.
One of the innovations
introduced by Article 8 of the Law was an emphasis on the conservation of
building heritage in small rural villages, in order to protect the historic
landscape and architecture of Friuli. Article 8 provided for the filing and
cataloguing of buildings not protected by the Fine Arts authorities, but which
had particular architectural features or uses that justified conservation. The
aim was «to preserve and enhance the main environmental, historical, cultural,
and ethnic values associated with local, vernacular architecture through the
proper execution of repair and restoration work. Ultimately, over 1,500
interventions of this category, known as ‘Article 8s’, were carried out, most
of which have now been digitised as part of the archive project conducted by
the Extraordinary General Secretariat, performed by the Central Directorate
for Infrastructure and Territory of the Region.
Some months later, Regional Law
No. 63 dated December 23 1977 came into effect. Titled Procedural
norms and first interventions for the launch of the work of redevelopment and
reconstruction of the areas impacted by the earthquake, it was the catalyst
for the reconstruction of buildings and the recovery of the urban landscape in
the domains of town planning, construction, and public works. Enzo Spagna, the
Regional Director of Territorial Planning at the time, noted that the Law «effectively
outlined the organisational framework of the levels of government, as well as
the technical, operational, and financial instruments intended to oversee the
physical reconstruction of the territory and settlements destroyed by the 1976
earthquake. This was implemented with the support of a significant delegation
of local administrative bodies».
Next came
Regional Law No. 35 dated July 4 1979, which aimed to «provide a prompt
and definitive solution to the housing needs of those living in temporary
prefabricated accommodation». This Law authorised the exceeding of the spending
limit for «proven technical reasons» and delegated to the Extraordinary General
Secretariat the authority to carry out repairs to private properties and the
design, maintenance, or reconstruction of public buildings, in a substitute
capacity and at the request of the Municipalities. This innovative measure
paved the way for construction sites to be grouped together, even across
different Municipalities, enabling substantial economic interventions to be
tendered, prices to be controlled, and the shortage of companies and labour to
be addressed. The Extraordinary General Secretariat completed eighteen
groupings in around sixty Municipalities, totalling 4,500 construction sites.
The same Law obliged owners of renovated or reconstructed buildings to return
the prefabricated accommodation to the Municipality after removing all personal
belongings from the buildings.
Further
reinforcing the concept of reconstruction as a synonym for rebirth, in 1982 the
State enacted Italian Law No. 828 dated November 11 1982, the Second
Reconstruction Act, not only to provide additional funding for the measures
already established by Italian Law No. 546, issued in 1977, but also to plan
new infrastructure projects such as the construction of the dam at Lake
Ravedis, doubling the capacity of the Delizia Bridge over the Tagliamento
River, and the freight terminal at Cervignano, reinforcing the development of
the entire territory of Friuli Venezia Giulia, which had already been supported
by regional funds. The Law also allocated further grants to promote economic
development and job creation in mountain and hillside communities impacted by
the earthquake, as well as in the provinces of Gorizia and Trieste, and in
non-earthquake-affected areas of the provinces of Udine and Pordenone.
With equal foresight, the State
approved Italian LawNo. 879 dated December 1 1986, the Third Reconstruction Law. It
supplemented the previous legislation and provided additional resources to
complete the reconstruction process. Specifically, funding was allocated to the
Aviano Cancer Referral Centre, the Via Bini building complex in Gemona, and the
Castle in the Municipality of Colloredo di Monte Albano. The latter is a highly
complex project which is now in its final stages. Italian Law No. 879 also
introduced incentives for seismic retrofitting work on undamaged properties in
disaster zones, as well as the Provisions for completing reconstruction in areas of Friuli
Venezia Giulia affected by the 1976 earthquake, bringing the reconstruction phase under
a single legislative framework ten years after the natural disaster. Between
1976 and 2000, this legislative system encompassed no fewer than 76 measures.
The reconstruction effort required a total
investment which, in the early stages, was estimated at over 5,000 billion lire
at the time. However, taking into account the funding provided to the Region
and the relevant State agencies, the figure was significantly higher, amounting
to approximately 20 billion euros in current terms (the expenditure curves for
the various components of the reconstruction are presented here).