Retrieval strategy of villa Peripato

The concept of tutelage, already with Gustavo Giovannoni’s action and the first Restoration experiences of ancient monuments in their historical, urban and landscape context, is extended to the consideration of the surrounding environment. With the introduction of the concept of “archeological park” originated by the actions of Muñoz and Corrado Ricci in the roman Central Archeological Area and moreover in the rearrangement of more important archologial parks until today, the importance of the green preservation has been found, first as context, but then more and more as landscape and cultural resource, proper and indipendent. In fact the respect of historicized green areas, considered as monuments at the same level of buildings becomes, since the postwar years, a consolidated theme in the Italian and intrnational discipline of restoration. In particular, in 1981-‘82 in occasion of a convention by ICOMOS in Florence a specific “Carta dei Giardini Storici” is edited in which the criteria for the restoration of those “works” are established. The base principle the “Carta” refers to is recognising the antropic component and the artistic talent which underlies the composition of a garden, although its matter is composed of vegetable essences and so mutable and “alive” by nature. The culture of Italian restoration since the 60s and 70s was based on a strict observation of “Brandi theory” connected to the crystalization of the artwork in order to guarantee a more prolonged conservation. In this spirit it was necessary to establish a set of rules defining the various ways to approach a “material” which composes the artwork to be preserved that, instead, has to keep its mutability through time because it is “alive”. In fact in the articles 1 and 2, the Carta di Firenze defines that “An historical garden is a vegetable architectonic composition and, from a historical or artistic point of view, shows public interest. As such it is considered as a monument” and that “The historical garden is an architectonic composition whose material is mainly vegetable, hence living and as such corruptible and renewable. Its aspect results therefore from a perpetual equilibrium, in the ciclical change of seasons, between the development and the deteriroration of nature and the will of art and skill which tends to preserve its state forever”. “As a monument the historical garden must be safeguarded […]. However, being a living monument, its safeguard requires some specific rules […]” The “Carta” also defines (art. 4) that “Are relevant to the architectonic composition of the historical garden: its map and the different profiles of the terreno; its vegetable masses: their essences, their volumes, their color play, their spicies, their respective hights; its constructed or decorative elements; moving or stagnant waters, reflection of the “sky” which in the specific case are definetely important externally to the perimeter of the villa, in the panoramic scenario, and in the perspective relationship with Mar Piccolo from the terrace’s belvedere overlooking towards the North. However water is not considered a physical element characterizing the garden.