**1. Introduction: The Sustainable Reuse of Cultural Heritage from a Circular Economic Perspective**

In the current European context, the conservation of cultural heritage presents a real challenge for professional and public institutions at national and local levels, even if it is strongly recognized that the heritage sector makes a significant economic contribution [1–3].

In Italy, many public institutions have an enormous asset that is composed of several unused buildings [4]. In recent years, difficulties in finding new uses for these properties has led to their abandonment and ruin.

Lately, Italian authorities have experimented with new approaches to valorize these massive estates, which are otherwise destined to remain unused [5]. The new policies look at redevelopment as a possibility to enhance public welfare through the creation of new social hubs [6] and a new sense of community within the population [7]. The promotion of these types of actions, strictly linked to citizens' social needs and social capital [8,9], allows the development of more sustainable and successful strategies [10]. In fact, investments in cultural heritage have multidimensional impacts (social, economic, historical, and cultural) and can contribute to increasing overall local productivity; improving inhabitants' wellbeing; and attracting funds from the public, private, and private–social sectors [11,12]. As Throsby highlights, cultural heritage can be considered as the "glue" between the different dimensions of sustainable development [13].

The redevelopment of ancient and unused buildings represents an opportunity to pursue new and innovative solutions [14].

In this context, the concept of adaptive reuse plays a significant role. Adaptive reuse helps to protect and preserve historical buildings against obsolescence, considering environmental, social, and financial aspects of sustainability and promoting the valorization of the surrounding society [15–17].

Currently, the conservation of cultural heritage can promote social cohesion and integration through regeneration of neglected areas, creation of locally rooted jobs, and promotion of a shared understanding and sense of community [18]. In this sense, cultural heritage must gain an active role both in today's society and the urban reality, especially in many small town and historic centers, as the case study presented here well represents.

Moreover, from a circular economic perspective, the efficient reuse of cultural heritage and the choice of recycled and natural materials help to reduce negative externalities and produce positive environmental, social, and cultural impacts which benefit the whole society [19].

The choice of functions compatible with the building structure and historical values, expressing the needs of local communities, helps to integrate cultural assets within the city context and to attract financial capital to ensure its management over time. Moreover, the use of recycled and natural materials is the starting point of a circular path that follows the environmental, economic, and social sustainability perspective [20–22].

The choice of a new function requires a systematic framework to evaluate the different feasible alternatives and sufficient information to identify the best solution, or at least, the best compromise solution [23]. The evaluation process has to handle the problem holistically by considering different perspectives, objectives, stakeholders, and values in a comprehensive manner; such a process may increase the quality of public decisions [24].

In this context, the objective of the paper is to propose an integrated evaluation model, based on multicriteria analysis, and a financial model to support the choice of the alternative reuse function of an ancient monastery in the municipality of Mugnano in the Campania region in order to define a "shared strategy" based on a bottom-up approach. This starts from the needs of the local community but does not neglect the historical and cultural values of the heritage building, as well as the economic and financial feasibility.

The methodology follows the general approach to decision problems [25], adapted to the case study analyzed in order to support the public administration—the owner of the monastery—to choose the best alternative reuse functions from a sustainable perspective.

The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2, we illustrate the framework adopted. In Section 3, we report the results of the social and financial evaluations tested on the case study of the Ex Ritiro del Carmine. In Section 4, the conclusion and discussion of future research are presented.
