Federica CHECCACCI

Cave paintings provide evidence that caves were among the first places to be colonized and inhabited by humans. Through this creative act, humans not only showed their will to physically appropriate and transform natural spaces, but also expressed their artistic identity and creativity. In later periods, the surfaces of subterranean architecture served as canvases for expressing the religious, cultural, and artistic sentiments of communities. This is evident in the frescoes of the Church of Sant’Angelo and Santa Maria in Matera, the paintings of the Church of Santa Maria della Rupe in Narni, and the mosaic decorations of the Pavese, Grimaldi, Doria, and Pallavicino Caves in Genoa. It is also not surprising that underground cavities are predominantly found in urban areas, e.g., Naples, Rome and Palermo, where the subsoil was also particularly suitable for the extraction of building materials. In fact, in some territories, these hypogeal architectures constitute an often neglected or forgotten underground built heritage, due to a lack of knowledge, a limited regulatory apparatus, and an absence of specific directions for conservation and enhancement.
In the face of additional risk factors associated with such assets, it is imperative to ask how it is possible to conserve them, while at the same time promoting their enhancement and transmissibility. In this regard, it is interesting to delve into some recent restoration projects capable of reinterpreting that primitive creative act, establishing an active dialogue between history, art and conservation. From the most famous and large-scale cases, such as the Centre International de l’Art Pariétal in Lascaux and the Carrières des Lumières in Provence, to the lesser-known and smaller-scale cases, such as the Meta-Tono installation in the Gioiosa Marea cave in Sicily and the Cava per l’Arte Contemporanea at the Municipal Art Gallery in Cagliari, conservation is prefigured as a creative tool of the restoration project with which to enrich the underground built heritage with new meanings and values, the very principle of a new collective memory of place.

Federica CHECCACCI

Cotutelle entre :
L’Université de Rome “La Sapienza”
&
École doctorale : Temps, Espaces, sociétés, cultures (TESC), UT2J
Unité de recherche : Laboratoire de Recherche en Architecture (LRA), ENSA T

Directeurs de thèse :
Caterina Giannattasio, Professeure DICAAR, Université de Cagliari Sardaigne.
Rémi Papillault, professeur HDR en architecture, docteur en histoire, EHESS, Paris.

underground built heritage, artificial cavities, conservation, hypogean architecture, excavated architecture, restoration projects