**6.2 Policies for the best reconstruction models**

Of course now it no longer serves to regret the failure to implement a proper prevention plan, as it was opportunely pointed out by the Ministry; noting how "the approach should have been different", without "waiting for the event (the seismic one or any other) to occur", preventing "the catastrophic aspects [...] without considering in any way the possibility of exchanging restoration with prevention" [79].

Precisely on the basis of this experience, the same Ministry recently drafted the *Linee Guida per la valutazione e riduzione del rischio sismico del patrimonio culturale* (Guidelines for the assessment and reduction of the seismic risk of cultural heritage) [80, 81], in alignment with the new technical standards for buildings, in which there are many examples of applications relating to the Abruzzo capital.

In this regard, we recall the admonition of Roberto Pane as early as 1980. "The earthquake is a violent and merciless tester; it shakes every masonry structure, causing the crumbling parts to collapse; and for modern factories, the discovery of the unforgiving failure and fraud in the use of reinforced concrete" [82].

The subject, especially for civil construction, is complicated by the fact that many buildings have "imploded"; the risk now being that they will be completely emptied and their typology changed (see **Figures 30**–**36**).

Undeniably there is the possibility of recomposing by anastylosis, the stone blocks lying on the ground of the various 'workshops' (along the lines of the

#### **Figure 30.**

*Porta Napoli, at the end of Corso Federico II, immediately after the partial collapse (photo S. Gizzi, 2009).*

<sup>20</sup> *Ibidem*. According to Insolera "a perfect solution does not exist. The best results came by examining everything with a fine toothed comb. Cities cannot be thrown away and redone; they are the point where many functions converge - homes, work, offices - which are not invented. More than the English new towns, I would look at the Ina-Casa neighborhoods, built in Italy from 1949 to 1963".

#### **Figure 31.**

*L'Aquila, collapses and props along the axis of Via Roma (photo S. Gizzi, 2010).*

reintegration of the Cathedral of Sant'Andrea Apostolo in Venzone after the earthquake of 1976 [83–86], and which has recently been discussed regarding L'Aquila21). Proceeding first with the "presentation on the.

ground" of the recovered ashlars, after identification and graphic restitution of the same22; as in the case of the many numbered pieces belonging to the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, arranged in the field behind and ready for a welcome reassembly.

In this regard, one of the most urgent anastyloses should, in our opinion, concern one of the most singular artifacts of architecture. Namely the evocative perspective canvas (painted dome) by Venanzio Mascitelli [87], dated 1827, in the Cathedral of SS. Massimo and Giorgio (created on the example of Andrea Pozzo's false dome of Sant'Ignazio in Roma 1685-), and now totally shattered: a work that always aroused the admiration of visitors and faithful.

The collapse was obviously favored by incorrect previous restorations. Now the restoration has begun, thanks to the help of the Fire Brigade, with the support of the Istituto Superiore per il Restauro e la Conservazione (High Institute for Conservation and Restoration), which has recovered the canvas cut in nine pieces [88].

Paradoxically, since the current earthquake, it has been possible to collect information of some interest: among the collapsed parts pre-existing architectural elements have been recovered (and exhibited in a special exhibition). Some are from the Angioinian age - which had been reused inside the new walls after the earthquake of 1703 [89] - components of which there were no memory. "Stone elements [...] of some of the most ancient monumental complexes of L'Aquila, of which any trace and memory had been lost" [90]. These were, in any case, works carried out in

<sup>21</sup> See, for example, S. B**UCCI,** *I monumenti perduti tra restauro e clonazione. Esperti divisi. I casi di Venzone e di Pavia*, in "Corriere della Sera", 9 aprile, 2009: "According to Roberto Cecchi [...] you can choose, after an earthquake, to reconstruct exactly the original, as was the case for the Cathedral of Venzone [...], or [...] as in Noto, where work was done by integrating the old and the new. Or, again, it is possible to act by mending, [...] healing the wounds".

<sup>22</sup> G. ZANDER, *Persepoli*. *Una testimonianza di come si lavora insieme*, in "Antiqua", anno II, n. 5–6, settembre-dicembre 1984, pp. 123–132, especially p. 131: "L'anastilosi deve avvenire in due tempi: ricomposizione a terra [...] e ricollocazione in opera".

*The City of L'Aquila after the 2009 Earthquake: Review of Connections… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96537*

#### **Figure 32.** *L'Aquila, collapses in the historic center: Tartari house, from the 15th century (photo S. Gizzi, 2010).*

continuity with the pre-existing masonry, with the same or similar techniques and technologies (see **Figure 37**).

All this has been lost over the years, the memory. The criteria for restoration have increasingly turned towards the use of heavy, invasive and poorly thought-out technologies, aimed, above all, at the use of reinforced concrete. In this sense the incorrect restorations were not so much those, discussed at length by Superintendent Mario Moretti (in the 1970s), on the various churches in L'Aquila (*in primis* Santa Maria di Collemaggio23), but the previous ones with the insertion of reinforced concrete. For example, the intervention of Ignazio Carlo Gavini, in the wake of Gustavo

<sup>23</sup> On Mario Moretti, in addition to the well-known literature, I also reference the thesis, supervised by me, of Sara D'Aurelio "La figura di Mario Moretti, soprintendente e restauratore in Abruzzo", a.a. 2003, Facoltà di Conservazione dei Beni Culturali dell'Università degli Studi della Tuscia di Viterbo.

**Figure 33.** *Onna, near L'Aquila. Collapses and rubble (photo M. M. Segarra Lagunes, 2011).*

**Figure 34.** *Onna, near L'Aquila, detail (photo M. M. Segarra Lagunes, 2010).*

*The City of L'Aquila after the 2009 Earthquake: Review of Connections… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96537*

**Figure 35.** *Collapses in Paganica, a hamlet of L'Aquila (photo S. Gizzi, 2011).*

**Figure 36.** *Fire Brigade in Onna, after the collapses (photo S. Gizzi, 2010).*

Giovannoni and Gino Chierici, as well as those carried out by the Civil Engineers and then by the Provveditorato alle Opere Pubbliche (Superintendency Public Works), from post Second World War to 1962 [91]. However, it was the use of reinforced curbs which Moretti used for raising the roof of the central nave of Santa Maria di Collemaggio and San Pietro di Coppito, as well as similar interventions in Santa Maria Paganica, that were one of the causes for the current disaster.

Yet, just think, that even after the Irpinia earthquake, widespread use of cementing historic masonry and the insertion of materials incompatible with the ancient structures continued. It seems significant that, in 1982 (two years after that earthquake), the conference "Terremoto e centri storici" (Earthquake and historic

#### **Figure 37.**

*L'Aquila, church of Santa Maria Paganica. Reused stone elements that came to light inside the eighteenthcentury walls after the collapse (photo S. Gizzi, 2010).*

centers) was held in Pescara, the capital of Abruzzo, as if foreseeing what would happened in 2009.

"Why was this initiative held in Abruzzo? As Abruzzo is one of the regions with greatest seismic risk in Italy, and because the conditions of abandonment of almost all the historic centers put the Region in conditions very similar to those of Irpinia before 1980", wrote the former President of the Abruzzo Regional Council of "Italia Nostra" in the introduction to the Conference [92].

At that forum in 1982, over thirty years ago, Superintendent Renzo Mancini noted that "the Abruzzo records have been enriched by the knowledge of some of the typical consequences of earthquakes" [93], it was still valued that "where possible in principle, we intervene with reinforced concrete curbs" [93], citing a series of examples such as: the churches of San Pietro ad Oratorium in Capestrano, San Filippo in L'Aquila, Santa Maria delle Grazie in Civitaretenga. Precisely those

#### *The City of L'Aquila after the 2009 Earthquake: Review of Connections… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96537*

that in the current earthquake would have suffered the most structural damage even if, "in the theory of restoration, the walls were left with their original bulge denouncing the historical phenomenon of collapse and its causes" ([93], p. 55). But Giulio Pane had already observed the risk, "These interventions, like a hat, are nothing but a greater risk! [94]".

### **6.3 Practice. Possible procedures for reconstruction**

Now, the fundamental problem is that of understanding the specific traditional techniques of L'Aquila, of the ancient masonry structures, of the mortars, on which considerable progress has been made (thanks to the research carried out by the Universities of Aquila [95] and Chieti24). Overcoming the idea - due to the history of restoration in L'Aquila - which until now was only concerned with the major buildings [96–98], such as the Palazzo and the municipal tower (already restored after the 1703 earthquake [99]). And for civil construction, the dismantling and reassembling of the "Cancelle" [100], and of a small building used as shops in the Renaissance period (overlooking the Piazza del Mercato, and moved early in the twentieth to a back alley), today seriously damaged by the earthquake.

Some consolidation techniques used after the 1703 earthquake did prevent the total collapse of the structures, but were rendered partially ineffective by subsequent

<sup>24</sup> Cfr., for example, C. VARAGNOLI,*Tecniche costruttive tradizionali e terremoto*, in "Ricerche di storia dell'arte", 99, 2009, *cit.*, pp. 65–76; of the same A., *La costruzione tradizionale in Molise e l'esperienza del terremoto*, in A. ANTINORI (Ed.), *Città e architettura in Molise nell'Ottocento preunitario*, Gangemi, Roma 2006, pp. 81–102, e ID. (Ed.), *La costruzione tradizionale in Abruzzo. Fonti materiali e tecniche costruttive dalla fine del Medioevo all'Ottocento*, Gangemi, Roma 2008. Cf., also, S. RANELLUCCI, *Manuale del recupero della regione Abruzzo*, DEI Tipografia del Genio Civile, Roma s/data. See also L. ZORDAN,*Tecniche costruttive dell'edilizia aquilana. Tipi edilizi e apparecchiatura costruttiva*, in M. CENTOFANTI – R. COLAPIETRA – C. CONFORTI – P. PROPERZI – L. ZORDAN, *L'Aquila città di piazze. Spazi urbani e tecniche costruttive*, Carsa, Pescara 1992, pp. 80–111, e L. ZORDAN, *Gli elementi costruttivi e le maestranze*, *ibidem*, pp. 112–159.

#### **Figure 39.**

*L'Aquila, panels with the figures of the reconstruction sites located under the arcades of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II (photo S. Gizzi, 2014).*

restoration with extensive use of reinforced concrete. For example: the wall spurs (frequently inserted in churches) [101], and the wooden chains used by Giuseppe Valadier in the dome of the Suffragio, along the lines expressed in Architettura Pratica [102].

Finally we are now moving towards the union and bonding of industrial and traditional techniques, as is being experimented in Collemaggio (for the first consolidation work after the collapse [103]) as well as at Santa Maria Paganica and the church of the Suffragio. Overcoming the long-standing and sterile diatribe between the supporters of pre-modern consolidation systems and those of innovative contemporary ones, and moving forward in a balanced search for technologies compatible with the historic heritage, which also represents a hope for the future of L'Aquila (see **Figures 38** and **39**).

#### **7. Conclusions**

The need to revive everyday life and put a stop to depopulation should have led to widespread reconstruction, but in most cases the lack of a culture of conservation and restoration became evident. Modern solutions, alien to the context, were chosen which ignored both the problem of protection and those of the compatibility of contemporary building in historical centers.

After the emergency works government action should be indispensable and a priority; proposing also development and promotion goals for the areas affected by such a devastating earthquake.

Similar issues to these had already been addressed in a book by Salvatore Boscarino relating to other earthquakes in the 1980s, coining the term "restoration of necessity" [104].

A new culture must play an important role in affirming a different relationship between man and the environment. The tragic event in the L'Aquila area highlights a balance that must be achieved through eco-sustainable choices.

#### *The City of L'Aquila after the 2009 Earthquake: Review of Connections… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96537*

Of course, the study presented here does not claim to be exhaustive. But it can certainly be useful as a reflection and a starting point for other types of analysis to be carried out on the relationship between both natural and man-made disasters and the problems related to the permanence of the population in the areas affected by them, including how to curb the phenomenon of depopulation.

The strength of the work, however, is the new approach to restoration and conservation. That is, restoration and conservation that must be understood not only as safeguarding values and material content, but also those of memory and intangible worth. It is not, therefore, only a question of merging restoration into town and architectural planning (which remain autonomous or separate disciplines), but also of proposing possible interventions linked to the memory of places and the inhabitants which are affordable to the Municipal administration and the various communities and Institutions.
