CULTURAL HERITAGE AND LEGAL ASPECTS IN EUROPE Edited by Mitja Guštin and Terje Nypan CULTURAL HERITAGE AND LEGAL ASPECTS IN EUROPE Edited by Mitja Guštin and Terje Nypan Koper 2010 Mitja Guštin, Terje Nypan Cultural Heritage and Legal Aspects in Europe Annales Mediterranea: Mitja Guštin, series editor Technical review: Neža Čebron Lipovec Proof-reading: Vesna Pintarič Print: Littera picta d.o.o. Publisher: Institute for Mediterranean Heritage and Institute for Corporation and Public Law Science and Research Centre Koper, University of Primorska For the publisher: Darko Darovec Address of editorial office: Založba Annales Univerza na Primorskem, Znanstveno-raziskovalno središče Koper Garibaldijeva 1, 6000 Koper, Slovenija tel.: + 386 5 66 37 700, fax: + 386 5 66 37 710, e-mail: [email protected], http://www.zrs.upr.si CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana 34:719(4)(082) CULTURAL HERITAGE AND LEGAL ASPECTS IN EUROPE / edited by Mitja Guštin and Terje Nypan. - Koper : Institute for Mediterranean Heritage, Institute for Corporation and Public Law, Science and Research Centre, University of Primorska, 2010. - (Annales Mediterranea) ISBN 978-961-6328-80-7 1. Guštin, Mitja, 1947- 252195328 Mitja Guštin, Neža Čebron Lipovec Heritage, Legislation and Tourism 1.2 10 Once upon a time force steered the growth of the modern port and the building of splendid Eclecticist and Secession palaces on the seaside. Several legal and philosophical issues in the protection of cultural At the same time the newly built Southern Railway connected heritage have followed the conscious and organized heritage Vienna (Austria) with the central and western Slovenian regions conservation attempts since the Renaissance, especially since already in 1842 and was inaugurated in 1857. the early 19th century, and many are still topical today. Looking into the evolution of conservation practice through a European Heritage preservation in the Austro- example several of these issues can be detected. Since the Hungarian period in Istria (1819-1918) meeting on Cultural Heritage and Legal Aspects in Europe took place in the town of Piran in the northern Adriatic peninsula of Istria, the conservation tendencies and the related legal issues The first attempts of an organized protection of cultural of this area will be pointed out as an example. The diverse and heritage in Istria are tightly related to that of the Austro- turbulent history of Istria along with its monument protection Hungarian Empire. Although the first Austrian law on cultural offers a handful of newsworthy themes. monument protection was only passed in 1923, the activities of the Vienna Centralkomission zur Erforschung und Erhaltung The town of Piran/Pirano, together with its tourist pendant der Baudenkmale (Royal Central Commission for the Research Portorož/Portorose, a former small village concentrated and Conservation of Architectural Monuments) played a around the church of St. Mary of the Rose, has been a tourism fundamental role. The Commission was founded at the end of destination for over a century now. It offers a set of heritage 1850 as an advisory body with no legal competence following category examples, e.g. the Venetian architecture of Piran, the an initiative of the Ministry for trade, in charge also of spatial Istrian landscape and vernacular architecture, the old saltpans planning. Its tasks consisted mainly of creating inventories of of Sečovlje with the related traditions, the thermal mud with monuments, maintaining them, and writing topographies. After its spa-tourism. All these elements were taken into account its transition under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and when the Yugoslav administration proposed a strategy for Religion in 1859, it was reorganised in 1872 and divided into the development of tourism in the area after 1954 to find a three sections: I. Monuments from Prehistory and Antiquity; II. way between the legal and societal requirements of protecting Monuments from the Middle Ages to the 18th century; III. Historic heritage and supporting development. The current situation monuments until the 19th century – archival artefacts. The work shows that several pending issues in heritage protection have was executed by voluntary professionals (“correspondents”) that not yet been overcome. were of different backgrounds (directors of museums, libraries, mayors ...). These special conservators were only employed Piran, an important Istrian town in the era of the Venetian Republic full-time after the major reorganisation in 1911 and worked in of the Serenissima, gained most of its new characteristics pairs (technical and art-historical conservator) in the regional through industrialisation and the development of tourism in the conservation offices. With the reorganisation in 1911 the statute mid-19th century. The north Istrian towns had a major economic listing the principles and duties of the Centralkomission was role throughout the Venetian rule until 1797. By the mid-18th written, representing the first attempt of establishing a legal century the main economic and trade focus shifted from the background in the conservation field in the Austro-Hungarian Istrian coast to the city of Trieste, which became the Habsburg Empire. However, no legal framework really existed in the area gate into the world. With the boosting development of the nearby of the Empire until 1923. tax-free port city of Trieste or the “porto franco” founded by Karl VI and Maria Theresa, the Istrian medieval towns faced decline. For the region of Istria, which came under Austrian rule after The new “promised land” of Trieste attracted businessmen and the secession from the Venetian Republic followed by a decade tradesmen from all over Europe and the world. The new economic of Napoleon’s regime (1805-1813), some individuals played 11 major roles. The first conservator for Istria from Trieste, the conservator Cornelio Budinich, author of a detailed research lawyer Pietro Kandler, active between 1857-1871, is famous on Gothic architecture in Istria and some projects for new for his topographies and historiographies of the Istrian towns, churches in Neo-Gothic style, e.g. in Portorož. The research among these significant is his historic monography about the about the typical Istrian churches served also as a baseline for town of Piran. Kandler was superseded as conservator in the the archduke’s wish to build a new church in the gardens of Northern Istrian area by the architects Giovanni Righetti and Miramar, which was never realized. Franz Ferdinand sought an then by Enrico Nordio.1 “Istrian style” that would meet the characteristics of the local landscape, especially in the fast growing building activity for Another prolific conservator was the Czech Anton Gnirs who a blossoming tourism in Istria. The need for more fine-tuned worked in Istria from 1901 until 1914 and has the merit of building was expressed also through the establishment of the having conducted large excavations of the Roman remains on the Office for the approval of projects for new public buildings set island of Brioni and Roman monuments in Pula/Pola and its rural up in 1908, which tried to face the “modest education of the architecture. His many publications concerned topographies, builders”. Most of the conservation interventions took place archaeology and architectural findings about the Roman period during the period of the archduke’s presence and engagement in Istria as well as about Early Christian and Medieval built in Istria. heritage up to the 16th century. Gnirs’ work is tightly connected to the figure of the archduke Franz Ferdinand2 for whom he We also recognize the archduke’s proneness to in situ preservation carried out a series of researches about the local movable in his engagement to prepare exhibitions with replicas and heritage and art pieces. Anton Gnirs and the archduke Franz not the original objects. Such was the example of the “Istrian Ferdinand met during the archduke’s rehabilitation vacation on exhibition” in Koper in 1911 and the “Adriatic exhibition” in the the island of Brioni, when he spent his stay wandering around rotunda of the Vienna Prater in 1913. For the latter the archduke Istria and the Kvarner “as a normal tourist, without escorts”, as accepted to be the protector only if none of the artefacts in the we read in the Adria newspaper from 1910. Gnirs also showed churches and convents from the Austrian Adriatic area left their him the Roman remains in Pula/Pola. original locations. Instead of transporting originals, replicas and reconstructions were built. In a way, such conservational The archduke was himself fervently engaged in the conservation attitudes conflicted with the archduke’s personal passion as a of monuments and remains of the past. He was honorary collector, yet it stressed a situation already highlighted by the member of the Central Commission since 1905, while in 1910 Istrian association for archaeology. the emperor Franz Joseph proclaimed him as the protektor of the Central Commission. With the new statute of 1911 the archduke Important for the heritage conservation in Istria was also the also had direct influence on the work of the Commission. His contribution of the Istrian Società istriana per l’archeologia e personal philosophy about the remains of the past had three storia patria (Association for archaeology and local history) baselines: conservation in situ, stylistically adequate restoration, from Poreč/Parenzo, contributing with exhaustive fieldwork and the protection of the townscapes with a local or regional and research over all Istria since its foundations in 1884. The style, relating to his rejection of the arising modernism of Otto Association was a filoitalian organisation that aimed to emphasize Wagner. A representative of the latter aim was the work of the the Italian appurtenance of the Istrian land through research. Despite their political undertone, their activities highlighted a very topical issue – the export of historic objects. In order to 1 Sergio Tavano, »Wiener Schule« e »Central-Commission« fra Aquil- eia e Gorizia, Arte in Friuli, Udine, 1988, 97-139.