Decision of the Council of State, IV Section, No. 5256 of 9 October 2012

The Council of State confirmed the decision through which the Regional Administrative Court for Campania-Naples had rejected the appeal against an order of demolition of building works made in violation of landscape protection and, thus, illegally (Article 32 of law decree No. 269/2003, converted into law No. 326/2003). According to the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court and at the light of the European Landscape Convention, landscape is not, merely, “natural beauty” but a set of values inherent in the natural territory; therefore, its protection is a primary and absolute value, which must prevail over other public or private interests.