John Ruskin la dimensione del tempo e il restauro della memoria

Art critic, exceptional storyteller John Ruskin's writings crossed the 20th Century, significantly influencing the interpretation of architectural heritage as a living matter to be preserved and passed on. His words against architectural restoration as a reconstruction resonate like a warning reminding us of the identity value of the buildings whose "character" cannot be ignored. Starting from the methodologies of the history of architecture, the paper intends to actualize Ruskin's critical thinking in order to question the historical value of the heritage subject to protection and conservation and on those buildings that we continue to consider authentic and which are often the result of radical interventions of reconstruction, reflecting on their meaning of documentary and pedagogical memories and on the role of the history in the processes of assimilation and recognition.