RESTORATION AND MUSEALISATION OF THE SITE

  

Over the course of the last ten years, two successive campaigns of work (2004/2006; 2015/2016) have brought to light a portion of the aforementioned Roman villa of inestimable artistic value. The presentation of the archaeological findings coincides with the musealisation of the prestigious settings of the Mother church.
The relevance of the archaeological findings and the striking positioning beneath the ground floor of the surrounding medieval hypogeum of the Mother church, at a depth of 11 meters, is testament to the impressive stratification of the historic and artistic roots of the coastal city.

Architecture, painted murals, and domestic items, are testimony to the cultural relevance of an historic context of inestimable value. At the end of the meticulous excavations, the precise structural reinforcements, the accurate restoration of the frescos and furnishings (bronze, ceramic, etc.) and the completion of the suspended walkways (catwalks and stairs), means that the public can now access the medieval hypogeum and see, beneath it, “a corner” of the most beautiful and ancient house in Positano.

 

The visitors’ trail makes it possible to see the outcome of the intensive restoration work undertaken, complete with the stratigraphy – the arrangement and order of strata – that marked the structures that have been uncovered and reveal the history of human and natural events that took place here.

The adequate conditions to preserve remains have been obtained thanks to a synergy of factors where a significant role is played by the functionality and by the management of the installations and the environmental and structural control systems. The site control, relies on the open building automation system,

that is able to adapt itself to all the possible technological installation evolutions.

The arranged system for the microclimate monitoring, apart from remote recording of the parameters, carries out the role of activating and deactivating the machines in an active and passive installation and resets the parameters of a regular microclimate.

The preservation can furthermore be reached by suitable behavior in the use of the estate, where no excessive variations on the microclimate conditions are made. Therefore, it is the case to properly regulate the entrances, with maximum prefixed visitors.

 

The restoration work not only tackled the technical and conservation problems encountered, but, in line with the guidelines set out in article 9 of the so-called Venice Charter, “conserving and highlighting the formal and historic values of the monument” was equally important.

The completion of these works happened thanks to the cooperation and efforts of the numerous professionals present at the site. It was, therefore, a “dialectic” site, with the participation of government departments and

research institutions for diagnostics and conservation like the Istituto Superiore Centrale per il Restauro di Roma (ISCR).

Through a time consuming process of scientific activity and the recovery of the spaces and findings made, the town of Positano has acquired an enriched monumental identity that is now available to present and future generations of the coastal town as the many tourists that it hosts.

Arch. Diego Guarino