ORIGINAL ARTICLE Buildings that ‘Speak’: Ichnological Geoheritage in 1930s Buildings in Piazza della Vittoria (Genova, Italy) Andrea Baucon 1,2 & Michele Piazza 1 & Roberto Cabella 1 & Maria Cristina Bonci 1 & Leda Capponi 1 & Carlos Neto de Carvalho 2,3 & Antonino Briguglio 1 Received: 8 March 2020 /Accepted: 14 July 2020 # The European Association for Conservation of the Geological Heritage 2020 Abstract The geoheritage value of sedimentary building stones has mainly focused on physical sedimentary structures and body fossils. By contrast, little attention has been placed on the geoheritage significance of ichnofabrics, which are the sedimentary fabrics that have been reworked by organisms. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the ichnofabric found on the buildings of Piazza della Vittoria, in Genova (Italy). Here, unusually visible and well-preserved specimens of the fossil burrow Bichordites are observed on the historical buildings designed by Marcello Piacentini, one of the local most prominent architects of the 1930s. The Bichordites of Piazza della Vittoria are winding meniscate burrows with a central string-like structure. Here, we interpret this ichnofabric as the result of the activity of a community of echinoids bioturbating a sand wave system. We have also located the historical quarry that provided material for the studied buildings with the same ichnofossils exposed. Surprisingly, the cuts on display on the buildings are much nicer than those in the outcrops and more taxon specific characteristics can be observed just on the tiles rather than in the field. For all these reasons, the geoheritage value of the Piazza della Vittoria ichnofabric relies in its unique scientific significance, the cultural value, and its potential future applications in research, teaching, urban geotourism and reference site. Keywords Building stones . Dimension stones . Ichnology . Palaeontology . Bichordites . Ichnofabric Introduction “Architecture is a visual art and the buildings speak for themselves” – Julia Morgan, architect Since Neolithic times, humankind has strongly relied on rocks to create buildings, structures and sculptures (Pereira and Marker 2016). As such, building stones are fundamental elements of cultural landscapes worldwide, being recognized as heritage features under the cultural, historical, archaeolog- ical, architectural and aesthetical perspective (Brocx and Semeniuk 2019; Todaro 2019). In addition, building stones can be of geoheritage significance in that they (1) manifest features important to the geological sciences in education and research, (2) raise the consciousness of the public and (3) are rare or of major historical/cultural value (Brocx and Semeniuk 2019). In sedimentary building stones, any of these heritage as- pects is intimately linked to fabric and colour, both of which commonly depend on the biophysical processes acting in the depositional environment. For instance, weathering of iron minerals in a semi-arid depositional environment is responsi- ble for the red colour of the Exeter Castle (UK) and Silves Castle (Portugal), built with the Permian-Triassic New Red Sandstone (Building Stones Database 2020) and the Late Triassic “Grés de Silves”, respectively. Lisegang rings are * Andrea Baucon andrea@tracemaker.com; https://www.tracemaker.com 1 DISTAV, University of Genova, Corso Europa 26, 16132 Genoa, Italy 2 Geology Office, Naturtejo UNESCO Global Geopark, Avenida Zona Nova de Expansão, 6060-101 Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal 3 Instituto D. Luiz, University of Lisbon. Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Campo Grande Edifício C1, Piso 1, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal Geoheritage (2020) 12:70 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-020-00496-x