The importance of stratigraphic analysis of historical constructions in the discussion on the restoration of monuments

Abstract

The different restoration theories have been marked by the double valuation of a historical building as architecture and as historical document, i.e. the simultaneous necessity to preserve it with all its documentary contents on the one hand, and the demand for treating it in order to direct it towards reaching this goal on the other. The defenders of preservation of documentary values at all costs have not been able to define these values beyond mere picturesque and literary aspects. Within this context, the appearance of the methodology for stratigraphic analysis of historical buildings has allowed the definition, and scientific and systematic analysis of the documentary values of the architectures of the past. This examination will allow to decide, in a reasoned and justified way, their elimination or preservation, when we are to undertake the restoration.