Liturgical restoration: the houses of Infant Jesus of Prague in the Church of Saint Mary of Providence at Macchia Giarre (Italy)

The works presents the case study on the restoration of the Infant Jesus of Prague from Macchia Giarre (Catania, Italy), an interesting plaster cast dated to 1928, with votive-processional use whose relevance is mainly linked to its liturgical significance. On 6 of January 2013 the statue was damaged during the traditional procession in honour of the Infant Jesus, making necessary an urgent restoration. On that occasion, the statue was investigated both from an historical point of view and also with moern technological instruments in order to gather infromation on the structure and on the materials. In particular the Infant Jesus of Prague was examined by computerized axial tomography. The materials used for restoration were charcaterized by X-ray spectroscopy in order to evaluate their suitability for the intervention.