Abstract
The documentation of the urban historical heritage is the preliminary step to identify the correct strategies for its protection and enhancement. To achieve this aim it is necessary to acquire a graphic documentation at the different scales of detail required by a multi-layered system as the historical landscape; this complexity can now be explored integrating traditional and digital survey methods and representation methodologies. Traditional methods, in particular, are characterized by a direct contact with places; this condition guarantee a deepest perception and a total immersion in the landscape integrating and giving quality to the considerable amount of data offered by recent technologies; this approach has been applied in the survey of the historical city of Cagliari in which the medieval districts of Marina, Stampace, Villanova and Castello retain a great part of the modern walled system built since the fourteenth century until the first half of the nineteenth century and a lot of interesting buildings designed for civil, public and religious use.