Restoration of the Church of St. Nicholas Fort Ricasoli: The Process of Conserving Our Heritage

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

Restoration programmes aid in preserving local building heritage for futuregenerations. Documentation of these restoration programmes is a fundamental taskin conserving and reserving significant cultural cultural buildings. Documenting anddeveloping a conservation strategy for a historical structure is quite a complex task andrequires not only planning the interventions required to conserve a building but also forfuture maintenance to enhance the effectiveness of such work. This paper is divided intofive sections. The first section, the introduction, gives a description and overview of thesubject being studied. In the second section, the existing literature study evaluates differentparadigms of protecting existing significant historic buildings. This is followed by anexplanation of the historical context and the history related to the subject studied. Finally,research on the documentation process is also reviewed. The third section describes themethodological approach that aided the analysis of this studys research questions in thefourth section. The fifth section gathers the primary and secondary data analysed and sumsup everything in accordance with the proposed research questions of this study. In order toconduct this research, the Church of St. Nicholas at Fort Ricasoli was used as the main casestudy. A detailed investigation of the church to identify the significance of conserving suchbuildings and an investigation of the existing conditions of the church were conducted. Thisaided in establishing the documentation process prior to the actual interventions on thefabric. In order to carry out such a process, different methods of documentation were used,such as laser scanning surveys, photogrammetry, and documentation of the existing stateof the building to aid in the process of deciding on future interventions. As a result of sucha process, considerations of appropriate uses of such methods and proposals were givenand, additionally, considerations of successful conservation after the actual conservation arehighlighted. The proposal for the conservation of the church of St. Nicholas at Fort Ricasolialso aims to set guidelines for other conservation programmes within the fort, amongstother local restoration projects. Conservation of abandoned structures will enhance thelocal context in various aspects. Finally, conservation programmes will give potentialbenefits to the Maltese islands. Giving back these historically significant monuments to thegeneral public will aid the Maltese islands economy.