Racconti interrotti / Broken tales

Valentina Pintus

2023-01-01

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Abstract

Its function as a place of imprisonment imposed an obligation of secrecy due to obvious security requirements. This constraint concerned both the architectural structure itself and the documentary sources that could reveal its internal architectural layout; not only was access to the spaces and documents forbidden, but the production of descriptive material was considerably limited. Historic prisons, thus deprived of the tools of narration and self-narrative, became a place on the edge of non-representation, where, by denying them a body and a voice, one implicitly denied their very existence, while allowing the deviation of common imagination. The recent process of decommissioning Italy's historic prisons, therefore, has represented a long-awaited opportunity to initiate a process of getting to know these places and finally telling their stories, now that the restrairts of confidentiality have been lifted. Starting with a survey of the archival sources and drawings, some of which have never been published before, the article proposes a new narrative of the history of the former San Sebastiano Prison in Sassari, based on the relationship between the construction and its function. We are, in fact, in a position to outline the circumstances, lines of thinking and variations that affected the building from its conception to its realisation.