The urban regeneration of minor historic centres, particularly in Italy’s inner areas, represents a strategic priority to counteract phenomena of depopulation, building decay, and the crisis of settlement systems. This contribution advocates for overcoming the logics of mere patrimonialisation and touristification which, over recent decades, have promoted an aestheticised and simplified vision of the “village” - often incapable of triggering genuine processes of repopulation and social regeneration. Starting from an analysis of the regulatory framework and active public policies, the research introduces an experimental qualitative-quantitative indicator: the Qualitative Recoverability Credential (CRQ). This tool, articulated into 12 parameters divided into three areas - urban quality, architectural-landscape quality, and socio-economic attractiveness - enables the assessment of the regenerative potential of historic villages and supports public decision-making aimed at effective intervention strategies. The CRQ was applied to 23 villages within the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park, an emblematic area facing significant demographic and environmental challenges. The analysis produced a comparative classification that helps identify intervention priorities and context-specific design trajectories. The adopted methodology, replicable in similar contexts, promotes a situated approach that is attentive to local specificities, territorial identities, and community ties. In this perspective, urban regeneration is reinterpreted as a complex and relational process, oriented not only toward the physical redevelopment of spaces, but also toward the affective and functional reactivation of resident communities.