scholarly journals The Historic Centre of Urbino, UNESCO World Heritage (Marche Region, Italy): an Urban-Geological Itinerary Across the Building and Ornamental Stones

Geoheritage ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrizia Santi ◽  
Mario Tramontana ◽  
Gianluigi Tonelli ◽  
Alberto Renzulli ◽  
Francesco Veneri

AbstractThe local and extra-regional (national and transnational) stones mainly used as building and ornamental materials in the historic centre of Urbino (UNESCO World Heritage List) were unravelled through a detailed geological and petrographic study. The types of building stones used in the past for the development of an urban centre were mostly affected by the availability of suitable geomaterials in the surrounding areas. For this reason, the stones found in the historical buildings of Urbino generally come from the local sedimentary formations (mostly limestones) belonging to the Umbria–Marche–Romagna Succession Auct., which crops out in the Northern Marche Apennines. Only some ornamental highly prized stones used for monuments and decorations come from both extra-regional Italian areas (Alps, other sectors of the Northern Apennines) and foreign countries (France, Egypt). A brief description of the Northern Marche geology was also reported to exactly match the local provenance of the stones, so highlighting the relationship between the territory and the architecture of Urbino. Because of obvious conservation reasons, no samples were collected from buildings or monuments and only autoptic observations, together with a detailed historical and bibliographic research, were carried out to identify the different materials and the provenance areas. Besides the availability of the local sedimentary rocks, we emphasised how the choice of the building and ornamental stones could have been also influenced by the historic period and artistic style, aesthetic features, economic and social importance of the building and/or monument and the relationship to some distinguished personality (e.g., Pope Clemente XI). An open-air stone itinerary across significant places (10 stops and additional sites and monuments in the urban area) is finally proposed for the best fruition of the geological and cultural heritage of Urbino, also aimed at geotourism development.

Author(s):  
I. Pasechnik ◽  
N. Marushina

In the context of an ever-increasing level of urbanization, the historical urban environment is one of the most studied phenomena in modern theory and practice of heritage conservation. The change in the paradigm of heritage that has taken place over the past decades and the recognition of man as one of the most important components of the heritage protection system contribute to the development of the legal apparatus and of new approaches to preserving cities. The article traces the relationship between the transformation of ideas about the value of an urbanized territory as an object of heritage and the evolution of its protection tools, reveals the role of various elements in maintaining the integrity of urban fabric based on analysis of international and Russian regulatory documents. The regular building is recognized as an element, which allows maintaining cultural identity and at the same time developing valuable characteristics of the historical environment, ensuring the invariability of the perceived image of the city. The historic centre of St. Petersburg, which has an internationally recognized architectural, urban and intangible (associative, memorial) values and is therefore inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, is characterized by exceptional integrity and authenticity of the historical urban environment. These qualities require special and based on the principles of sustainability approaches to the development of the territory, which will ensure the maintenance of the integrity of the urban environment as an element of human environment.


X ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tommaso Vagnarelli

Considerations on the conservation of an etruscan archaeological landscape: the case of Cerveteri fortificationsWhere now stands the city of Cerveteri (RM), between the ninth and third century BC took form one of the most important city-states of Etruria: Caere. Today this place is especially noted for the presence of the Etruscan necropolis of Banditaccia, inserted in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2004. The remains of the ancient fortifications, that represent one of the most interesting and well-preserved examples of an Etruscan defensive wall, are instead less known. Due to a prolonged abandonment and a presence of uncontrolled vegetation, the conservation of this testimony is now compromised by visible signs of deterioration. At the same time, this condition has defined a suggestive archaeological landscape in which architecture and nature coexist in a precarious balance. This contribution tries to deepen the importance of preserving this evocative symbiosis and proposes a possible conservative approach that could manage the relationship between ruins and vegetation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-240
Author(s):  
Piotr Gleń

The article deals with cultural values that represents the wooden church architecture. Author focuses on the examples of the church in the Polish and Ukrainian region of Carpathian mountains. The abundance of wood as a building material in the region, as well as the landform and the localization, resulted that the local architecture Orthodox Church has become a unique and highly characteristic. The author of the article, presents the wooden churches in the Poland and Ukraine inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site which took place on 21 June 2013, at the 37 session. On that list is currently 16 Orthodox churches of the Carpathian region: 8 temples on the Polish side and 8 from the Ukrainian side. The churches of the Carpathian region inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage are a testament to the interpenetration of Christian culture characteristic of the East and the West showing the relationship between the Polish and Ukrainian community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Athos Agapiou

AbstractThe article presents recent capabilities of active and passive earth observation sensors along with related processing image chains, for monitoring UNESCO World Heritage properties. Exceptional heritage sites and landscapes are found in dynamic environments, whereas both anthropogenic and natural changes are observed. The use of radar and optical satellite imageries can be used as a systematic observation tool for stakeholders, to map drastic or slowly driven landscape changes towards the better protection and management of these sites and their surrounding areas. The study presents the results from the analysis of the European Copernicus Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellite images over two broader areas in the Eastern Mediterranean basin that hold important UNESCO World Heritage properties. Initially, a recent strong earthquake of a 6.7 magnitude scale in the Aegean Sea is studied using radar Sentinel-1 images. These radar images were processed through the Hybrid Pluggable Processing Pipeline (HyP3) cloud platform for analyzing both significant changes of the VV (vertical transmit, vertical receive) and VH (vertical transmit, horizontal receive) backscattering signal as well as through an Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) analysis. Then, long-term changes in Cyprus during the last two decades are monitored by a Sentinel-2 image compared to the European Corine Land Use Land Cover data of 2000. These changes are mapped after a supervised classification process using the random forest (RF) classifier. The overall results demonstrate that the recent developments of the space sector in all its segments (resolution of the sensors, the capacity to storage in the cloud, processing advancements and open-access datasets and tools) can be beneficial for monitoring UNESCO World Heritage properties.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Marco Riccucci ◽  
Jens Rydell

We highlight the use of the bat (Chiroptera) in the Florentine Renaissance art. Michelangelo Buonarroti, Bernardo Buontalenti, Albrecht Dürer and several others used images of bats in their sketches, sculptures and decorations and many bat images are still to be seen on the palaces and monuments in the Historic Centre of Florence, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The bats can usually be identified as such by the large ears or the characteristic wing membranes, although they constitute highly stylized artwork, often grotesque and certainly not intended to be morphologically correct. Furthermore, during the Renaissance it was not yet realized that bats are mammals, and some of the images could actually be interpreted as either birds or bats. The bat image was somehow tied to the Medici Noble Family, the undisputed rulers of Florence throughout the Renaissance, where it may have symbolized cultural darkness or ignorance. We speculate that the bat images could also have meant happiness and prosperity, with connections to China, and protected the buildings on which they appeared. In any case, the Renaissance bat had evolved far, artistically as well as conceptually, from the bat images that personified demons or the Devil in the European medieval literature and contemporary religious artwork.


2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Caroline Jaeger Klein

In 2015, Kosovo tried to join UNESCO and failed by three quotes. Is Kosovo ready for its UNESCO membership? At least for its national architectural heritage, this question is to answer with no. The intensively discussed issue of the medieval monuments of Kosovo inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage by Serbia and Montenegro before the declaration of independency in 2008 and their further management through Kosovo is just one aspect. More troubling is that the rather young state not yet could establish sufficient structures to gain a systematic inventory of its monuments, sites and historic ensembles, nor to extract a tentative list for UNESCO out of such an encompassing inventory. This article intends to clarify the definitions of World Heritage, the institutions and NGO’s involved, the mechanisms and philosophies behind. What is the urgent homework for Kosovo? Which national and international groups of experts Kosovo has to name and make responsible for the systemic inventory of its architectural heritage and for creating a tentative list? What is the role and importance of ICOMOS in that process? Which other stakeholders have to be Identified and educated towards that issue?</p><p>Based on such general considerations the author tries to design finally a preliminary tentative list for the architectural heritage of Kosovo. Hence, not the list itself is of importance but the discussion of the pro and contra arguments for single candidates.


ARCHALP ◽  
2018 ◽  
pp. 174-179
Author(s):  
Francesca Bogo

The Province of Belluno is home of great human and landscape quality and of the beautiful Dolomites, UNESCO World Heritage. How experiences of contemporary architecture fit and how are promoted in this context? It can be said that contemporary architecture does not attract a big audience. This is despite the constant efforts by various bodies and associations to promote its diffusion and development through competitions, conferences, workshops and case studies. In the Belluno region, apart from the extraordinary extant historical heritage, there are widespread examples of new architecture known as “false alpine models” or architecture that has erroneously become typical of the Province’s image. This is the reason why this new architecture with its range of peculiarities is widely reiterated, from north to south of the area. Even though buildings of this type lack any real ties with history or tradition, they find widespread approval by institutions and commissions. They are the result of repetitive practices deriving from constraints imposed by local regulations and a limited aptitude in the use of contemporary language of architecture. Even if the barometer of the vitality of contemporary architecture in the region of Belluno is rather lukewarm, dampened by cultural resistance and by regulatory constraints affecting its growth and diffusion, there is no lack of experiences, initiatives and achievements. The latter is evidence of the fact that where research and the use of contemporary languages are accompanied by the opinions of enlightened patrons, good architecture is born, which find space in the arena of national and international architectural debate. Examples of good architecture, even though limited in number, are distributed across the Province and constitute heritage and the focus for promoting and consolidating the growth and dissemination of contemporary architecture throughout the area.


2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohayah Che Amat

This research presents the value of historic urban landscape (HUL) elements in influencing the character of George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), Penang, Malaysia. The values were perceived by the local community of different social-cultural groups that occupied the study area. The historic urban landscape elements constitute towards the protection of its townscape. The identification of the heritage elements influenced by the community interaction with their environment. This study also helps to define the character of a place, as well as reflecting its historical significance. The study adopted four techniques to gather both qualitative and quantitative data, including questionnaire survey, in-depth interview, visual survey and content analysis. In general, the local community has the capability in valuing the historic urban landscape values. The outcomes of their perceptions became the statement of the historic urban landscape values, which are expected to lead to the development of the areas. The community evaluation and perception can be expanded in implementing any development of the historic urban area by the authority.


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