Le forme della conoscenza: test diagnostici preliminari e verifiche a restauro in corso d’opera / Forms of Knowledge: Preliminary diagnostic testing and investigations during the restoration process

The aim of restoration is to preserve the authenticity of historic architecture and its stratifications, making the additions clearly distinct and proposing a compatible use. This cultural position is behind the intervention carried out on the remains of the former Mother Church in Santa Margherita di Belice in Sicily, destroyed by an earthquake in 1968, which today houses the Remembrance Museum. After ruling out the first idea of rebuilding the parts that had collapsed, the restoration project steered towards the critical conservation of the genuine fragments, the reintegration of the incomplete structure and the redefinition of the architectural envelope with new potentially reversible structural components. A scientific campaign of diagnostic investigations guided the consolidation of stucco finishes, and the reintegrated parts were realized with current materials and techniques. The new roof lets the light enter the former church through a screen of wooden slats that recreate ideally the shape of the collapsed vault. This book presents all the thoughts and the main aspects of the operational phases related to the restoration project, the scientific insights, the reuse proposal and the intervention site.