The issue of the ruin: from the nineteenth century theories about patrimonial preservation to the critical restoration

Abstract

Ruins are a proficient field of digressions and experiments collaborating to the maturation of the historical monument concept that settled down from XIX century. In the following century, traumatic episodes of war set the challenge of facing recent ruination, updating the problem. This study aims to verify how the remnants in a state of ruin are approached by the theoretical corpus of the main debates on heritage preservation between the nineteenth century and the promulgation of the Venice Charter (1964), a document that consolidated the foundations of contemporary restoration. For this analysis, we based on the verification of two questions: ruins, what is it and how to intervene in it? In the network of meanings that involves the concept of cultural heritage, it is verified that the definition of ruin is complex because it implies in the following aspects: degree of mischaracterization, condition of use, age of the buildings, temporal distance and causes of the ruin. Disarticulation of a property enhances the complexity in dealing with the preexistences and the acceptance of the marks of its destruction. Considering the meaning of ruin as a state of degeneration (regardless of edification’s existence time), it is observed that the theoretical prescriptions for its treatment are not different from any other cultural good; in this way, maintenance, conservation, and restoration operations are valid, based on the following assumptions: minimum intervention, distinctiveness, respect for materiality, reversibility; and use of compatible materials and techniques, combined from a strict historical and critical analysis of each object and its degree of degradation.