Medieval Survivals in Modern Rome L. Bianchi Istituto Per Le Tecnologie

Transactions on the Built Environment vol 39 © 1999 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509 Medieval survivals in modern Rome L. Bianchi Istituto per le Tecnologie applicate ai Beni Culturali, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Area della Ricerca di Roma, via Salaria km. 29,300, C.P. 10, 00016 Monterotondo Stazione (Roma), Italia EMail: bianchi@nserv. icmat. mlib. cnr, it Abstract An analysis of medieval buildings in Rome with "defensive" characteristics has been ongoing for the past four years (towers, fortified houses, fortifications on ancient monuments). The research, originally designed to provide a graphic database on architecture, developed to become systematic analysis of individual monuments, of their structural and utilitarian evolution through the ages to the present day. The paper will illustrate a series of cases in point. An additional objective of the research programme, which is inter-disciplinary, is to test non- destructive techniques on buildings to ascertain the various stages of their construction. At the same time, the idea was to produce a prototype geographical information system (urban topographical scale 1:1000) uniting all the related tables and all the information acquired. 1 Introduction For the past four years, the Institute for Technology applied to Cultural Heritage at the Italian National Research Council has been engaged in an analysis of fortified medieval buildings in Rome, such as towers, fortified houses and fortifications on ancient monuments. The study of such buildings was begun by the Chair of Medieval Archaeology at the University of Rome "La Sapienza". It later developed to become a project proper, with the financial support of the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, as a part of a more general programme regarding the application of new technologies for cataloguing Italy's cultural heritage. The project mainly consisted (Bianchi[l], Bianchi[2]) in compiling an architectonic filing system, or graphical and numerical database, according to the methods of the Italian Central Cataloguing and Documentation Institute (ICCD). The architectonic database was highly technological though Transactions on the Built Environment vol 39 © 1999 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509 442 Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Historical Buildings the system has now grown old, of limited capacity and speed. The data remain valid, however, enabling researchers to focus their systematic analyses on the various features presented by individual monuments, not least their structural and utilitarian modifications down the ages. This phase, in fact, is ongoing despite the restrictions of the Ministry's bureaucratic cataloguing procedures which are rather a bind for the research. 2 Research characteristics In presenting a series of architectonic-archaeological objects - not just a graphic illustration but highlighting every single element, feature, substance and historical and cultural significance of a given monument - two points are fundamental: a) the first is essential data: constructing a prototypical model for each object of analysis incorporating a range of fundamental information; b) the second is analytical proper, or the capacity of each model to interact with the pool of available descriptive data. Thus a study of each monument today is carried out from many different angles of investigation on a series of parallels. On first approach, the primary and apparently obvious point is to check known sources. These will lead to new lines of historical enquiry via archives to analyse the history, function and designated use made of a building down the ages. This phase might be said to be philological in nature and it has already served in many cases to correct preconceptions, misunderstandings or even falsifications which had become consolidated through time. On a parallel with this, researchers carry out photogrammetrical surveys of the building and analyse the structures it presents. Comparative studies are then made of the type, age, form and use made of building materials and the techniques employed. The data resulting from all these activities is collated in a basic profile, still only in Italian, and organised into related sections, paragraphs, fields and sub-fields. It incorporates every type of information from descriptions of general aspects of the building and its environment to the minutest detail. Again on a parallel with these studies, which are now focusing on over 20 buildings in Rome's historic centre, specifically the Monti quarter and the area adjacent to the Tiberine Island, a scientific and analytical publication has been produced on: the Capocci towers on the Esquiline and Viminal hills; the Grassi tower in Mars Field; the Vallati house at the Octavia's Gate; the Papito's tower at largo Argentina; the towerhouse in via dei Chiavari; the towerhouse in via Tor di Nona. All the original surveys carried out, the historical documentation collated, the archive material, pictures and drawings of the period were all organised into critical essays complete with detailed indexes (Bianchi[3]). A study of this type, whose objects are integral structural parts of a complex, pluri-stratified city like Rome, must also examine the historical and topographical development of the target zone. This means the analysis must go back as far as the classical age, since the topography of ancient Rome has often if not always had a bearing on medieval building work, up to the modern age. For, coming to know a monument does not mean simply analysing its characteristics and physical state but developing an understanding of its relationship with its Transactions on the Built Environment vol 39 © 1999 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509 Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Historical Buildings 443 surroundings in terms of both time and space. More profoundly still, it means developing an understanding of its very existence, the reasons for it, and of its transformations. This is one of the main reasons why it is imperative to take an inter-disciplinary approach to research of this type, meaning in full respect of every single scientific field's own method of enquiry, indeed, of the unique, vital contribution and knowledge of every single specialist within an organic whole. In addition, research of this type demands that the whole series of analyses, data and findings, even if they appear to be of a secondary nature, be presented. The purpose of this is to provide a verifiable database for further study, that may be revised and re-elaborated by other researchers. This broader perspective, which may even seem an over-ambitious goal of applied research that no doubt creates problems of balance in probing all the data proposed, is nevertheless a prime necessity. This research is organised in such a way that it could serve eventual restoration works on a monument because it will be a primary source of data comprehensive of the building's history and purpose. We all know that any restoration work is necessarily destructive and, for good or ill, it will always modify the existing state of a building irreversibly. Nor is it any secret that restorations, even routine restorations, have always been driven by the most disparate convictions according to historical epochs and cultures of the day, cultures which could be described as "ideological", or founded on presuppositions of the theoretical kind whatever they may be. This is perfectly understandable and we need not cry scandal in the name of some kind of abstract purism as sometimes happens. So beyond all of that, let me repeat what we all know - that every restoration operation should be carried out primarily in respect of the history of the object in question and on the basis at least of the most accurate research possible into that object's evolution. At the same time, a vital basis must be as much documentary material as possible before embarking on any irreversible intervention. This, unfortunately, is not always the case and losses are frequently considerable. This is not the place to debate opposing theories and concepts on the issue but it is the place to offer a few examples which have emerged from the study of medieval buildings in Rome. These are buildings ignored or under-valued, which still exist under the modern city structures and which are often closely intertwined with others of the classical age. They are buildings which have endured so many modifications and of such kind as to be incomprehensible and, indeed alienated, once they have been stripped away from their original context, isolated in busy streets with junctions, and deprived of their original topographical surroundings. Rome witnessed townplanning of this kind between the end of last century, for example, and halfway through this one. It was compounded by indiscriminate structural works and wall refacings in attempts at historical "reconstructions" which were often so well done technically that it is difficult today to distinguish the modern from the ancient. The result is pseudo-history, in all senses. Of a totally different nature are some of the more obvious, recent cases which I would call vandalism proper, or the perverse thinking of sacrificing ancient structures to modern usage. I refer to the violence inflicted last year on the 16th century bastion of Santo Spirito, the work of Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, to make way for a carpark on the Janiculum hill for the Jubilee Year 2000. Transactions on the Built Environment vol 39 © 1999 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509 444 Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Historical Buildings 3 Some critical examples The following are a few cases in point illustrating the need for a global historical understanding of a monument. The first is the case of two towers on the Esquiline hill close to the church of San Martino ai Monti and not far from the basilica of Saint Mary Major. There was a close association between them originally and their topographical positions had been determined by the function they fulfilled and by the geomorphological characteristics of the terrain.

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