THE VENICE CHARTER COULD ONLY BE EUROPEAN ORIENTED

Published in 11/04/2025 - ISBN: 978-65-272-1284-3

Paper Title
THE VENICE CHARTER COULD ONLY BE EUROPEAN ORIENTED
Authors
  • Pedro Vaz
Modality
Abstract
Subject area
1. Historical Context and Heritage Concepts - An exploration of the historical context and conceptual foundations that shaped the Venice Charter, emphasizing its Eurocentric origins and the need for a critical rereading.
Publishing Date
11/04/2025
Country of Publishing
Brazil | Brasil
Language of Publishing
Inglês
Paper Page
https://www.even3.com.br/anais/icomos-scientific-symposium-2024-439820/807213-the-venice-charter-could-only-be-european-oriented
ISBN
978-65-272-1284-3
Keywords
Venice Charter European oriented, history of Conservation doctrine
Summary
The Venice Charter still retains its founding character and status, by putting the discourse in a doctrinal perspective, as a standard of professional conduct, defining ethical criteria in the approach, mainly to historic buildings. Without defining recipes for action, the Charter established guiding principles that reflect the European thoughts in 1964. In the preamble, it sees itself as the successor of the Athens Charter of 1931, to which it attributes the beginning of the international movement. But all the text is based on European History. Athens Charter is a natural evolution from Boito’s Charter from 1883, a marvellous theoretical synthesis of the Valadier, Stern or Andrade’s work on buildings, their work being inspired by Bartolomeo Cavaceppi and Giovanni Antinori in the 18th century. Other contributions from Ludvic Vitet, Prosper de Merimée, Napoleón Didron, Viollet-le-Duc written for the Historical Monuments Commission created in 1837 in France are also present in the Venice Charter, some word by word. In the Articles, it begins by addressing all the buildings or sites that have a cultural significance in the urban or rural environment, inspired in Andrade and Giovannoni. Similarly, it accepts works from the past as much as recent works, provided they had a distinctive cultural significance, following Prosper Merimée’s and Viollet-le-Duc advises in the middle of the 19th century. Article 3 reminds the strategy proposed by the French Commission, later written by Viollet-le-Duc, Alöis Riegl and Cesare Brandi. Article 4 rewrites Viollet-le-Duc and later Ruskin’s ideas. Article 5 refers to the importance of a "natural" useful purpose of historic buildings without implying deep modifications to the built fabric, as proposed by Viollet-le-Duc in 1843 and later written in the Charter of Athens. In terms of material restoration, the new charter defined the conceptual issue with great precision, stating on Article 9 that "[...] restoration must stop where conjecture begins", inspired in Cesare Brandi, and “must bear a contemporary stamp”, the same words used by Boito, exactly the same idea written on Article 13. The respect for the valid contributions of all periods to the building on Article 11 rewrites Prosper de Merimée and Viollet-le-Duc. The replacements proposed no Article 12 are the same written in 1849 by Viollet-le-Duc, later by Boito’s Charter. Article 16 brought back Boito’s advice to publish, to keep the memory of the transformation available. Of course, new ideas were born in Venice, but its most famous Charter reveals the deep knowledge of the State of Art of it’s Committee, and it had to be contaminated by the bibliography of their time. And the strategy of defining ethical principles resulted in its transgenerational validity, that makes it “never wrong”. The paper intends to present all the evidences mentioned, showing the construction of the thought that culminated in Venice Charter text.
Title of the Event
ICOMOS SCIENTIFIC SYMPOSIUM 2024
City of the Event
Ouro Preto
Title of the Proceedings of the event
ICOMOS 2024 Scientific Symposium Proceedings
Name of the Publisher
Even3
Means of Dissemination
Meio Digital

How to cite

VAZ, Pedro. THE VENICE CHARTER COULD ONLY BE EUROPEAN ORIENTED.. In: ICOMOS 2024 Scientific Symposium Proceedings. Anais...Ouro Preto(MG) Convention Center / UFOP/ UFMG Campus, 2024. Available in: https//www.even3.com.br/anais/icomos-scientific-symposium-2024-439820/807213-THE-VENICE-CHARTER-COULD-ONLY-BE-EUROPEAN-ORIENTED. Access in: 31/08/2025

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