SOSTENERE LA MEMORIA

Ida Chiappe

Università degli Studi di Genova, Scuola di Specializzazione in Beni Architettonici e del Paesaggio (già Restauro dei Monumenti), Stradone S. Agostino 37- 16123 Genova, ida@arch.unige.it

ABSTRACT

Artistic, historical and anthropological reasons make monumental cemeteries a cultural heritage of extraordinary interest, whose importance is still, in great part, unexplored. Their architectonical and sculptural works witness a know-how typical of the 19th and 20th centuries and, at the same time, they reflect habits and tastes of a society in which ours deepens its roots. To support this Memory is complicated: exposed to continuous and often sudden changes of the weather conditions and because of their being private properties and of slender resources of which the Town Councils dispose, they are subject to limited, if inexistent, works of restoration and maintenance.

This paper deals with the problems connected to the management of the monumental cemetery of Lavagna (Ge), searching the most appropriate strategy for the tutelage of the extraordinary inventory of its sculptures and chapels. Therefore, this paper suggests an instrument for the management of the risk of damages to the structures and ornaments for the visitors’ security and for the integrity and legibility of the works themselves. Besides, wider reflections are proposed about the synergy among the actors - as Town Councils, private citizens, Superintendence, high specialized schools, associations - involved in preserving an inheritance which is, in the meantime, private and collective, unreplaceable witness of the culture and the social customs of the last two centuries.

Parole chiave/Key-words: monumental cemetery, funeral heritage, Lavagna, management of Memory, knowledge tool.