ICOMOS-CIF Glossary

Italian English (UK)

RESTAURO CONSERVATION

CONSERVAZIONE PRESERVATION

RIPRISTINO RESTORATION

Briefly, an historic building is one that gives us a sense of wonder and makes us want to know more about the people and culture that produced it. It has architectural, aesthetic, historic, documentary, archaeological, economic, social, and even political and spiritual or symbolic values; but the first impact is always emotional, for it is a symbol of our cultural identity and continuity – a part of our heritage. If it has survived the hazards of 100 years of usefulness, it has a good claim to being called historic.

Sir Bernard Melchior Feilden: Conservation of Historic Buildings, 1982

Authenticity does not constitute the main value of monuments but is the fundamental condition for every value that monuments may have.

Giacomo Boni (1885), Presentation to the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB)

Anastylosis, that is to say, the reassembling of existing but dismembered parts (Venice Charter, 1964)