This research would like to investigate the potentials of an Intercultural Dialogue between researchers in the field of preservation and enhancement of Architectural Cultural Heritage.
As declared in 2001 by the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity of UNESCO, we can consider Intercultural Dialogue as defined in the following quote:
“In our increasingly diverse societies, it is essential to ensure harmonious interaction among people and groups with plural, varied and dynamic cultural identities as well as their willingness to live together. Policies for the inclusion and participation of all citizens are guarantees of social cohesion, the vitality of civil society and peace. Thus defined, cultural pluralism gives policy expression to the reality of cultural diversity. Indissociable from a democratic framework, cultural pluralism is conducive to cultural exchange and to the flourishing of creative capacities that sustain public life” (Article 2, “From cultural diversity to cultural pluralism”).
In this perspective, we can assume Cultural Heritage as an essential instrument for the Intercultural Dialogue, as defined, in 2015, by the Namur Declaration:
(point 2 of the Declaration) “Cultural Heritage is a key component of the European identity; it is of general public interest and its transmission to future generations is a shared responsibility; it is a unique resource, fragile, non-renewable and non-relocatable, contributing to the attractiveness and the development of Europe and, crucially, to the creation of a more peaceful, just and cohesive society”.
This research is focused on this possibility of an Intercultural Dialogue between Italy and the Balkan region.
We are speaking about the Eastern part of Europe, that means speaking about a huge and complex system of historical events.
If we consider the Balkan area from the point of view of the different nationalities that use to live together, we can immediately be sure that there must be a long process of migrations as outcomes of a spontaneous or forced transfer of people.
The result is an ethnic mix, especially in the border areas of this region.
Groups of people with different origins, during the years paved the way for who’s Hösch [Hösch, 2006] consider as a “Balcanic mix” (“Miscuglio balcanico”, in the source red by the author).
It can by highlighted that, during the XVIII and XIX we have a lot of travellers that used to investigated the Balkan areas and report their travels in precious detailed chronicles.
This is a point that I’m going to examine in depth.
But we must consider that, starting from the Russian Revolution, so from 1917, this part of the word begun to close its accessibility to the western part of Europe and probably we hit bottom with the Cold War, that, definitely, put a censorship between West and East part of Europe.
This phenomenon sometimes is visible (as in Berlin), sometimes is invisible but still strong as a wall, that, felling down in 1989, projected in a really brief period, a part of the word (including the Balkan area) in a word that was grown with different habits and rules.
Nowadays, after only three decades, a lot of countries are fully involved in a European strategy to enlarge the boundaries of Europe, including the Balkan region.
It is a strategical and really interesting moment of the history, that can became an important occasion to implement our knowledge.
I think it is useful to refer to a quote by Peter Schreiner [Ronchey, 2002], that wrote:
“La natura unitaria dell’Europa non è comprensibile senza rifarsi a quel passato nel quale l’albero europeo affonda le sue radici. La grande Europa, tanto auspicata e infine ora quasi del tutto realizzata, supera i limiti dell’Occidente per includere Stati sorti sui territori già dominio dell’impero di Bisanzio, dai Balcani alla Russia, che ha creato una vasta zona d’influenza e di irradiazione culturale su tutta l’Europa dell’Est. Dalla dissoluzione dell’Urss quei territori sono in grande sommovimento etnico e trasformazione politica. Per comprendere il senso di questi problemi attuali è assolutamente indispensabile la conoscenza della storia e della mentalità del Millennio Bizantino.”
In this idea of Cultural Heritage as an instrument of Intercultural Dialogue, we would like to propose a starting point for the research identified as the historical moment where Italy and the Balkans were under the same Empire.
We are speaking about the Byzantine Empire, that, chronologically, can be identified between the 395 a.C., after the death of the roman emperor Teodosio I, and the 1453, with the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire.
The research will adopt the 560 a.C. as a “terminus post-quem”, because some historians make it coincide with the first publication of the “De Aedificiis” opera by Procopio da Cesarea. This document is mostly important for this research, because it can be considered as the first systematic census of architectonical proprieties of the Eastern Roman Empire.
It was under the reign of Justinian the I (527-565 a.C.), the emperor who, after so many years of continuous barbarians’ incursions, decided to invest in the re-building of the Roman Limes in the Danube area.
The approach of this research is not focused on the archaeological investigation. It uses archaeological datas in a critical way, to analyze the history of these regions and to understand the cultural background of those populations.
In this perspective can be read the use of the term “Byzantine Commonwealth” in the title of the research.
Thanks to Dimitri Obolensky, we are considering Commonwealth as:
“The word 'commonwealth', likewise ambiguous, is used in this book as a rough equivalent of at least the last of these Greek terms [basileia=empire]. No precise constitutional significance should be ascribed to it, nor is its purpose to suggest any modern parallel. It is offered as a convenient and, it is hoped, not inappropriate description of a society whose structure and bonds were seldom wholly visible to men of the Middle Ages, but which the historian today, with his greater awareness of the unifying effect of culture on human institutions, values and behaviour, can perceive more clearly”. [Obolensky, 1974]
In this greather awareness, this research would like to investigate about foreign studies on the architectural archaeological remains and, up to now, it starts from the Italian studies about archaeological remains along the Danube river.
During the the ’80 of XX century we had important studies, conducted by Zanini and De Maffei.
Zanini [Zanini, 1986] tried to investigate the evolution of the architectonical plan of a castrum, expecially those castra that are located along the Danube river as a Limes between the Byzantine Empire and Slavic population.
De Maffei [De Maffei, 1988] proposed to investigate the Justinian’s architectural proprieties in the Byzantine empire, trying to understand what the strategy at the base of the emperor’s conquests was and what were the common peculiarity of the Byzantine’s architecture under Justinian the I.
Those investigation about the Cultural Heritage of Balkan areas would like to become a solid background that let us enter in a dialogue with local researchers, to understand the meaning and the role of restoration in this region.
Italy, during the centuries, had a continuous and strong debate about conservation of Cultural Heritage, and, nowadays, it can be resume as the definition of the word conservation, express on the article 29 of the Italian “Codice dei beni culturali e del paesaggio” Decreto Legislativo 22 Gennaio 2004, n.42.
Article 29 - Conservation
1. The conservation of the cultural heritage is ensured by means of a consistent, coordinated and programmed activity of study, prevention, maintenance and restoration.
2. Prevention is defined as the set of activities capable of limiting situations of risk connected to the cultural property within its context.
3. Maintenance is defined as al l the activities and work carried out for the purpose of controlling the conditions of the cultural property and maintaining the integrity, functional efficiency and identity of the property and its parts.
4. Restoration is defined as direct intervention on a property by means of a set of operations aimed at the material integrity and the recovery of the aforesaid property, the protection and the transmission of its cultural values. In the case of immovable property situated in areas declared to be at risk of earthquake on the basis of the laws and regulations in effect, restoration shall include work for structural upgrading.
5. The Ministry shall define guidelines, technical regulations, criteria and models for the conservation of cultural properties, and in doing so may avail itself of the participation of the Regions and the collaboration of universities and competent research institutes.
(The translation of this law has not been made by the author, but it can be find on the UNESCO website [UNESCO, 2004])
If now we consider Cultural Heritage as:
“immovable and movable things which, […] present artistic, historical, archaeological, ethno-anthropological, archival and bibliographical interest, and of any other thing identified by law or in accordance with the law as testifying to the values of civilization”
We have to take in account that, immediately after, the law specifies that:
“Cultural heritage property belonging to the government shall be designated for public enjoyment”.
This precept can be guaranteed by an activity of “Valorization” (in a new meaning of the term), that is presented in the article 6:
“Enhancement consists in the exercise of the functions and in the regulation of the activities aimed at promoting knowledge of the cultural heritage and at ensuring the best conditions for the utilization and public enjoyment of the same heritage.
Enhancement also includes the promotion and the support of conservation work on the cultural heritage”.
The basis of this research is strictly related to this last quote. Enhancement as an essential actor to promote the knowledge of the Cultural Heritage.
From one hand we can consider Italy as a “pioneer” nation in the establishment of a codifying methodology to recognise, preserve, restore and enhance Cultural Heritage.
(The actual Italian policy about restoration is given by a long discussion, held especially during the XIX-XX centuries, by many actors, like Camillo Boito, Gustavo Giovannoni and Cesare Brandi.
Right now, we refer to the Bibliography, and there is the intention by the author to introduce a resume of the Italian discussion on restoration in these centuries as a paragraph of the thesis.)
In the other hand, nowadays it can be considered not only interesting, but also necessary to implement and to expand our horizons, to compare our knowledge with another situation.
For every motivation that we mentioned above, this research will try to persecute this aim, starting from the case study of Serbian country, where it has already been possible to establish good contacts with researchers of the University of Novi Sad.
Serbia, along with 5 other Western Balkans countries, was identified as a potential candidate for EU membership during the Thessaloniki European Council summit in 2003.
In 2008, a European partnership for Serbia was adopted, setting out priorities for the country's membership application, and in 2009 Serbia formally applied.
In March 2012 Serbia was granted EU candidate status.
In September 2013 a Stabilization and Association Agreement between the EU and Serbia entered into force.
In line with the decision of the European Council in June 2013 to open accession negotiations with Serbia, the Council adopted in December 2013 the negotiating framework and agreed to hold the 1st Intergovernmental Conference with Serbia in January 2014.
On 21 January 2014, the 1st Intergovernmental took place, signaling the formal start of Serbia's accession negotiations.
The evolution of this research considers the involvement of other countries of the Balkan area, with the added value of a simultaneous creation of a network of expertise that can contribute, all together, to the definition of the terms of this common research.
THEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY/SITOGRAPHY
THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE
Byzantion, Revue Internationale des Études Byzantines, From 1924 to 2017
Carile, Antonio, Materiali di Storia Bizantina, Bologna: Editrice Lo Scarabeo, 1994.
De Maffei, Fernanda, Edifici di Giustiniano nell’ambito dell’Impero, Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1988.
Diehl, Charles, Figure bizantine, Torino: Einaudi, 2007 (from the original Figures byzantines, Parigi: Armand Colin, 1927)
Dujčev, Ivan, “Bisanzio e il mondo slavo”, in Dujčev, Ivan, Medioevo bizantino-slavo, Roma: edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1965.
Fondazione Centro italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, Atti dei Congressi, Spoleto.
Fondazione Centro italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, Atti delle settimane di studio, Spoleto.
Fondazione Centro italiano di Studi sull’alto Medioevo, Bizantinistica. Rivista di studi bizantini e slavi, Spoleto.
Hussey J.M., Obolensky D., Runciman S., Proceedings of the XIIIth international congress of byzantine studies, London: Oxford University Press, 1967.
Krautheimer Richard, Architettura paleocristiana e bizantina, Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1986.
Miomir Korać, Snežana Golubović, Nemanja Mrđić, Gordana Jeremić, Stefan Pop-Lazić, Roman Limes in Serbia - Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Belgrade: Institute of Archeology, 2014.
Morrison, Cécile, Il mondo bizantino, L’Impero romano d’Oriente (330-641) I, Torino: Einaudi Editore, 2013
Obolensky, Dimitri, Byzantium and the Slavs: collected studies, London: Variorum Reprints, 1971.
Obolensky, Dimitri, Il Commonwealth bizantino, Roma: Laterza, 1974.
Analyzed also in the English version:
Obolensky, Dimitri, The Byzantine Commonwealth, New York, Washington: Praeger Publishers, 1971
Ostrogorsky, Georg, Storia dell’Impero Bizantino, Torino: Einaudi Editore, 2014.
Procopio di Cesarea, De Aedificiis, Venezia: Michel Tramezino 1547 (translated in Italian, from the original version, in Greek, VI Cent., by Benedetto Egio da Spoleto).
Procopio di Cesarea, La Guerra Gotica, Milano: Garzanti, 2005 (translated in Italian, from the original version, in Greek, VI Cent., by D. Comparetti)
PORPHIRA, International academic journal in Byzantine Studies, 2003-2018 -
http://www.porphyra.it (last visit: March 2018)
Ravegnani, Giorgio, “Le unità dell’esercito bizantino nel VI secolo tra continuità e innovazione”, in Gasparri, Stefano, Alto Medioevo Mediterraneo. Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2005.
Ronkey, Silvia, Lo Stato bizantino, Torino: Einaudi, 2002.
Sven, Conrad, “Archaeological Survey on the Lower Danube: Results and Perspectives”, in Guldager Bilde, Pia and Stolba, Vladimir F. (ed.), Surveying the Greek Chora. The Black Sea Region in a Comparative Perspective, BSS4 – PONTOS, Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 2006, pp. 309-331
Treadgold, Warren, Storia di Bisanzio, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2009.
Vlasto, Alexis P., The entry of the Slavs into Christendom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.
Zanini, Enrico, “Confine e frontiera: il limes danubiano nel VI secolo”, MILION studi e ricerche di arte bizantina (1986).
THE BALKAN SITUATION
Bono, Salvatore, Un altro mediterraneo. Una storia comune fra scontri e integrazioni, Roma: Salerno editrice, 2008.
Canale Cama, Francesco, Casanova Daniela, Delli Quadri Rosa Maria, Storia del Mediterraneo moderno e contemporaneo, Napoli: Guida, 2009.
Caucaso (il): cerniera fra culture – Dal Mediterraneo alla Persia (secoli IV-XI), Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 2 voll., 1996.
Danube Declaration, International Commission for the Danube River, 9 February 2016
European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, 2016 - https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/countries/detailed-country-information/serbia_en
Ferrari, Aldo, Breve storia del Caucaso, Roma: Carocci, 2008.
Hösch, Edgar, Storia dei paesi balcanici, Torino: Einaudi, 2005.
Hösch, Edgar, Storia dei Balcani, Bologna: il Mulino, 2006.
King, Charles, Storia del Mar Nero. Dalle origini ai giorni nostri, Roma: Donzelli editore, 2005.
Le Goff, Jacques, L’Europa medievale e il mondo moderno, Bari: Laterza, 1994.
Scopece, Alessia Roberta, L’impero globale. Transizione tardoantica e crisi postcontemporanea, Cagliari: Arkadia Editore, 2018
Simonti, Federico, L’invenzione della Frontiera. Storie dei confini materiali, politici, simbolici, Bologna: Odoya, 2015.
SPECIFIC THEME OF ITALIAN TRAVELLERS IN THE BALKANS:
(in a chronological order)
Dell’origine del Danubio, dedicato a Pietro Lion, Venezia, 1685
L’origine del Danubio, Norimberga & Bologna, 1685
Origine e corso del Danubio. Con la cronica Ungara e Turchesca, Macerata, 1685
Giuseppe Clemente di Baviera, Ammiralità nel Danubio, Monaco, 1693
Trattato intorno allo stabilimento del commercio che introdursi potrebbe nella Germania; rendendo navigabili i Fiumi di essa, ed unendoli per mezzo di canali con il Danubio e altri fiumi del Mezzogiorno: per dove si verrebbe parimente ad avere Comunicazione con i mari dell’Oriente, e dell’Occidente, Vienna d’Austria: appresso Cristoforo Lercher, Stampadore dell’Università, 1709.
Sestini, Domenico, Viaggi e opuscoli diversi, Berlino: Appresso Carlo Quien, 1807
Sestini, Domenico, Viaggio curioso-scientifico-antiquario per la Valachia, Transilvania e Ungheria fino a Vienna, Firenze: Stamperia di Luigi e Fratelli Magheri, 1815.
Ghibellini Francesco, Quadro geografico della Turchia europea, Milano: Tipografia di Giuseppe Pogliani, 1828
Smancini, G., Scorsa piacevole in Grecia, Egitto, Turchia, sul Danubio e da Vienna alla Lombardia, Milano: Tipografia Manini, 1844.
Sestini, Domenico, Viaggio in Valachia e Moldavia, Milano: Tipografia di Gio. Silvestri, 1853
De Vecchi, Felice, Escursione lungo il teatro della guerra attuale, dal Danubio alle regioni Caucasee, Milano: dalla tipografia di Claudio Wilmant, 1854
Nicolich, N., La pace di Parigi e la navigazione del Danubio, Trieste: Tipografia del Lloyd Austriaco, 1856
Yriarte, Carlo, La Bosnia e l’Erzegovina durante l’insurrezione. Note di viaggio, Milano: Fratelli Treves Editori, 1876.
Ferri, Silvio, Arte Romana sul Danubio, Milano: Tipografia Popolo d’Italia, 1933
Rossetti, Carlo, Il Danubio fiume internazionale, Milano: Istituto per gli studi di politica internazionale, 1937
Carito, Assunta, Resoconti di viaggiatori italiani nei Balcani nel XVIII secolo, in Europa Orientalis 8, contributi italiani al VI congresso internazionale di studi sud-est europei, 1989
CULTURAL HERITAGE AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
Andreeva, Diana (in cooperation with) Tomova, Bilyana,
“Bulgaria 1. Historical perspective: cultural policies and instruments”, Compendium: cultural policies and trends in Europe (2011).
http://www.culturalpolicies.net/web/bulgaria.php (last visit: March 2018)
Bălşan, Bianca-Maria, “Romania 1. Historical perspective: cultural policies and instruments”, Compendium: cultural policies and trends in Europe (2012).
Bettini, Maurizio, Radici. Tradizioni, identità, memoria, Bologna: Il Mulino, 2016.
Brandi, Cesare, Teoria del Restauro, Torino: Einaudi, 2000 (1 edizione: 1963)
Bold, John and Cherry, Martin, The Politics of Heritage Regeneration in South-East Europe, Council of Europe, 2016.
Carbonara, Giovanni, “An Italian contribution to architectural restoration”, in Frontiers of Architectural Research, Elesevier, 2012, 1, pp. 2–9.
Dragicevic Sesic, Milena, Mikic, Hristina, Tomka, Goran,
“Serbia/ 1. Historical perspective: cultural policies and instruments”, Compendium: cultural policies and trends in Europe
(2015).
http://www.culturalpolicies.net/web/serbia.php (last visit: March 2018)
European Heritage Policies (HEREIN System), Serbia,
Giovannoni, Gustavo, Vecchie città ed edilizia nuova, Milano: CittaStudi Edizioni, 1995 (prima ed. Torino: UTET, 1931).
ICOMOS, The Nara Document on Authenticity, 1994.
Law on Planning and Construction (“Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia”, No. 72/2009)
Morin, Edgar, Insegnare a vivere. Manifesto per cambiare l’educazione, Milano: Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2014.
Namur Declaration, 6th Conference of Ministers responsible for Cultural Heritage, Cultural heritage in the 21st century for living better together. Towards a common strategy for Europe, 2015.
SIRA (Società Italiana per il Restauro dell'Architettura), RICerca REStauro, Roma: Edizioni Quasar, 2017
Snitko, Irina, Veprytska Kateryna, Lombardini, Nora, “Developing pattern of ancient city Tauric Chersonese valorisation: risks, value, identity”, in Restauro Archeologico – RA, 1 (2015), pp. 54-73.
UNESCO, Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, Paris, 1995.
UNESCO, Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, 2001