The Central Commission in North-Eastern Italy: Protagonists and Restorations in Friuli and Küstenland, 1853–1918

The presentation will take into account the activity for the protection of the monuments in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia carried out by the Central Commission from its foundation until the end of the first world war. The territory of the region was first part of the Lombardo Veneto kingdom, and successively was divided between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austrian Littoral (Küstenland) until its complete annexation to Italy. Will be examined the institutions in the Italian territory, the theoretical approaches, the protagonists of the protection and restoration activity such as Pietro Selvatico, Pietro Kandler, Alois Riegl and Max Dvořák. The main restoration works carried out in that period will be also examined with particular attention to the relationship between theory and praxis in architectural restoration also in comparison with the subsequent interventions carried out on the same monuments by the Italian administrations. Among these works there are the restorations of the Tempietto Longobardo of Cividale, of the mosaics of San Giusto in Trieste, of the bell tower of the basilica of Aquileia and of the early Christian mosaics of Grado and Aquileia, all of which demonstrate a well defined conservative approach in restoration, very different from the reconstructions in search of the unity of style often carried out in that period and after.