Safeguarding Of Cultural Heritage Research Articles

Claiming Indigeneity in Europe: Livonian activism for language protection

ABSTRACT This article addresses the impact of international law in the fields of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding and the protection of the rights of Indigenous peoples on national legislative and policymaking processes related to the legal status of the Livonian language and the Livonian people in Latvia. As argued in this article, recent international law developments and purposeful claims of Indigeneity have served as an efficient argument used through Livonian activism at the national level to strengthen their language protection and to gain increased policy support for the practice and continuity of Livonian language and culture.

The promises of the bureaucratisation of intangible cultural heritage safeguarding in post-conflict regions: lessons from anthropological fieldwork in four Western Balkan states

ABSTRACT Anthropology and critical heritage studies share a rather negative view of the role of bureaucracy in heritage management as utilised by the international community in post-conflict regions. However, fieldwork findings among ethnologists working as expert bureaucrats in four Western Balkan states (Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina) suggest that the ongoing process of the ‘bureaucratisation’ of collective identities, based on UNESCO principles, holds more promise for successful conflict management than relying solely on day-to-day politics or a purely academic critique. The safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage has emerged as a powerful tool for redirecting identity-based conflicts towards abstract concepts such as ‘elements’, ‘lists’, and ‘registers’. These abstractions are less susceptible to suffering than real individuals. Consequently, this approach offers a greater chance of success in mitigating conflicts. Anthropology’s most significant contribution to the global implementation of the heritage-for-peace paradigm could be to reconcile with ethnology, despite any disciplinary incongruity that may arise.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A 2D/3D BIM-GIS WEB PLATFORM FOR PLANNED MAINTENANCE OF BUILT AND CULTURAL HERITAGE: THE MAIN10ANCE PROJECT

Abstract. The integration of Building Information Modeling (BIM), or Historic BIM (HBIM), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has assumed a crucial role not only in the management of smart cities or urban districts, as well as in the construction sector or infrastructures but also in the management, conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage. This integration opens up new opportunities for decision-makers to assess the impact of interventions on heritage sites, evaluate preservation strategies, and facilitate informed decision-making processes. This contribution presents and describes the open-source web platform developed within the Interreg MAIN10ANCE project. The project aims to promote a common methodology for the cooperation and collaboration of the various stakeholders involved in the restoration, management and maintenance activities of built and cultural heritage sites. This objective has been pursued by creating a BIM-GIS database, focused on the definition of planned maintenance activities, whose data has been made available to professionals and management bodies by means of a shared web platform, usable directly in situ on a tablet or portable devices. The paper highlights the key components of the web platform, including the BIM, GIS, and artifact Viewers, the Planner, and the overall Dashboard. The platform's multiscale and multi-source approach makes it extensible to various cultural assets, whether environmental, architectural, or movable. By integrating historical and geometric information and planning maintenance activities, the web platform thus supports public administrations and professionals, amending existing state-of-the-art solutions.

Climate Change and Cultural Heritage: Methods and Approaches for Damage and Risk Assessment Addressed to a Practical Application

In the last 20 years, research on the observed and projected impacts of climate change on cultural heritage has led to significant developments regarding damage quantification and risk assessment, which unfortunately are not yet exhaustively transferred to practical applications and to the sector of policy and decision making. One of the major reasons for this still lacking alignment remains with the inadequate handover of quantitative data, which is a prerequisite for the development of measures and strategies for the mitigation of the impacts and risk reduction. In this paper, we focus on the methods and approaches put in place for the production of projections providing quantitative assessments of climate change-induced impacts in the near and far future (up to the 21st century) on outdoor built heritage mainly constituted by stone and stone-like materials. Our critical study found that different approaches have been applied for quantifying slow cumulative damage due to the ongoing variations of climate and air pollution parameters and to risk assessment caused by hydrometeorological extreme events induced by variations of temperature and precipitation. There is clear evidence that efforts are still needed for directing research to provide concrete solutions and tools addressed to meet the requirements of stakeholders and to solve the existing challenges in the field: selected effective models and tools are illustrated. The discussion is structured in order to highlight the driving role of research in supporting the definition of priorities for heritage managers and the development of strategies by decision and policy makers for the prevention and safeguarding of cultural heritage at risk.

Cultural Heritage and Human Rights

The safeguarding of cultural heritage and the protection of human rights constitute separate branches of international law, with different origins and different historical development. However, the far- reaching development of international cultural heritage law in the past half century has progressively infiltrated the field of human rights, developing what we may call ‘the human dimension of cultural heritage’. This article reconstructs the process of mutual influence of these two branches of international law by way of an analysis of the most representative sectors on international cultural heritage law, including protection of cultural property in war time, restitution and return of stolen and illegally exported cultural objects, the protection of cultural heritage of outstanding universal value (‘world heritage’), and the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage and of cultural diversity. At a time when armed bands and terrorists deliberately destroy cultural property of great importance for humanity and angry crowds demolish monuments memorializing controversial figures of the past, connecting human rights and cultural heritage becomes an ever more necessary condition for a dialogue among the peoples and, in the end, the foundation for international peace and security.

Preserving Linguistic Diversity: Strategies for Language Preservation and Cultural Heritage Safeguarding

The Batak linguistic group in North Sumatra, Indonesia, encompasses a diverse array of languages, each representing a unique cultural identity. This research embarks on an in-depth comparative analysis of these languages to unveil their linguistic relationships and explore their cultural significance within their respective communities. The research employs a multi-faceted approach, involving data collection from native speakers, fieldwork in community settings, and collaboration with language experts. Linguistic data, including phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic features, are meticulously analyzed. Comparative methods are applied to elucidate linguistic bonds and distinctive nuances within these languages. Our analysis confirms the presence of strong linguistic bonds among the Mandailing Batak, Toba Batak, and Karo languages. Shared phonological features, agglutinative morphology, SVO word order, and culturally significant lexicons underscore their common Batak heritage. The existence of tonal patterns and tonal variations enriches the linguistic landscape. Simultaneously, distinctive linguistic nuances in each language highlight their unique identities and cultural significance. This research emphasizes the significance of preserving linguistic diversity and cultural heritage within the Batak communities. The findings provide valuable insights into the preservation of cultural practices, historical knowledge, and ancestral narratives. It serves as a call to action for the continued preservation and revitalization of these languages, recognizing their profound connections to culture and identity.

The Italian experience and its contribution to the Union Civil Protection Mechanism in reinforcing cultural heritage protection through the Proculther project

Purpose. The aim of the article is to explain how the Italian response capacities for the safeguarding of cultural heritage at risk of disaster has been enhanced over the past twenty-five years and how it has contributed to raising the awareness of this issue at international level. Approach/methodology. For this purpose, the main steps made in the last decades by Italy in including the protection of cultural heritage among other emergency issues are described below. In fact, Italy has made many efforts in the past decades to improve the emergency management of cultural heritage, paying particular attention to preparedness, prevention and response actions. Since the end of the past century, dedicated training courses have been organized at all levels as well as local, national and international exercises with specific scenarios dedicated to the protection of cultural heritage at risk of disaster in order to test specific procedures needed to ensure this type of response. In the meantime, the drafting of standard operating procedures specifically addressing the protection of vulnerable cultural heritage emerged as a result of a keen collaboration between the Italian Ministry of Culture (Italian acronym MiC) and the National Civil Protection Department (Italian acronym DPC). Findings. In this process of constant evolution of operational and technical capacities aimed at reducing the risk of cultural heritage disasters, the combination of past experience and acquired competences of Italy, France, Spain, Turkey, ICCROM and Fondazione Villa Montesca has prompted the launch of the PROCULTHER project, co-funded by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG-ECHO). Value. The project aims to support and complement the efforts made by the European Union to strengthen cooperation between the EU Member States and Participating States in this field. In this sense, by pooling together European civil protection capacities and capabilities and providing for common standards enabling certified and well-equipped teams to work interchangeably when a disaster strikes, the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM), is an essential and effective system aimed at allowing a stronger and more coherent collective response. Under this framework, the project is promoting, for the first time, the development of a common European methodology, tools and capacities in order to include the protection of cultural heritage in the disaster risk management cycle and to ensure structured collaboration among cultural heritage and civil protection stakeholders at local, national and European level.

Advances in the application of nanomaterials for natural stone conservation

The unpredictable effects of climate change impose the safeguarding of Cultural Heritage (CH) with effective and durable materials as a vital solution in the invaluable socioeconomic resource of CH. Conservation products and methodologies are addressed under recent advancements in colloidal science providing multi-functional solutions for cleaning, consolidation, protection, and monitoring of the architectural surfaces. Nanoscience significantly contributes to enrich the palette of materials and tools that can guarantee an effective response to aggressive environmental agents. Nanostructured multi-functional nanoparticles, nanostructured fluids, and gels for stone conservation are reviewed and future perspectives are also commented. The stability and high flexibility in designing tailored made nanoparticles according to the specific characteristics of the substrate enable their use in a variety of applications. Stemming from the well-performed in lab applications with nanomaterials, the testing onsite and the monitoring of their effectiveness are of crucial importance, considering also the constructive feedback from conservators and heritage stakeholders that can unquestionably contribute to the improvement and optimisation of the nanomaterials for CH protection.

Nanocellulose for Paper and Textile Coating: The Importance of Surface Chemistry.

Nanocellulose has received enormous scientific interest for its abundance, easy manufacturing, biodegradability, and low cost. Cellulose nanocrystals (CNCs) and cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) are ideal candidates to replace plastic coating in the textile and paper industry. Thanks to their capacity to form an interconnected network kept together by hydrogen bonds, nanocelluloses perform an unprecedented strengthening action towards cellulose- and other fiber-based materials. Furthermore, nanocellulose use implies greener application procedures, such as deposition from water. The surface chemistry of nanocellulose plays a pivotal role in influencing the performance of the coating: tailored surface functionalization can introduce several properties, such as gas or grease barrier, hydrophobicity, antibacterial and anti-UV behavior. This review summarizes recent achievements in the use of nanocellulose for paper and textile coating, evidencing critical aspects of coating performances related to deposition technique, nanocellulose morphology, and surface functionalization. Furthermore, beyond focusing on the aspects strictly related to large-scale coating applications for paper and textile industries, this review includes recent achievements in the use of nanocellulose coating for the safeguarding of Cultural Heritage, an extremely noble and interesting emerging application of nanocellulose, focusing on consolidation of historical paper and archaeological textile. Finally, nanocellulose use in electronic devices as an electrode modifier is highlighted.

Religion-Related Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding Practices and Initiatives of the Contemporary Chinese State

This paper reveals the contemporary Chinese state’s active role in shaping the country’s religion-related intangible cultural heritage (ICH) safeguarding, through a systematic review of China’s official inventories of national representative ICH projects and extensive investigations of relevant local practices and initiatives. Although China is ruled by a political party officially embracing an atheist ideology, various elements of the contemporary Chinese state have been proactively involved in safeguarding religion-related ICH. The Chinese state’s involvement in de facto religion-related ICH safeguarding predates its adoption of explicit ICH safeguarding narratives. Still, the Chinese state’s practices and initiatives in safeguarding religion-related ICH flourished after ratifying the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004. Since then, China’s central government has established a nationwide framework to recognise representative ICH items, including religion-related ones. Beyond Beijing, various local state agencies have also developed noticeable enthusiasm for supporting the safeguarding of religion-related ICH. In addition to engaging directly with ICH safeguarding, the contemporary Chinese state has also shaped China’s religion-related ICH by working closely with some academics and religious groups.

Co-operative Initiatives of UNESCO and EU for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage

Both UNESCO and EU have their own understandings, priorities, practices and politics related to the safeguarding of cultural heritage and of the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage (ICH) in particular. Nevertheless, recently one could not but mention the notable increase of the number of their co-operative initiative to these ends. The paper discusses some of them that are related to the ICH. Special attention is paid to the co-operative efforts for the promotion of ICH among the widest possible audiences and in particular among children and teenagers.

Safeguarding Uganda’s Cultural Heritage: An Inquiry into the Opportunities and Challenges Brought by the COVID-19 Pandemic

Uganda’s cultural heritage includes artistic and cultural expressions such as languages and literary arts, performing arts, visual arts and handicrafts, indigenous knowledge, cultural beliefs, traditions and values, cultural sites, museums, monuments and antiquities. Some of these cultural heritage aspects are man-made while others are natural. Our cultural heritage is important for both sociocultural and educational purposes. It promotes tourism and consequently, creates employment for people. The natural aspects of our heritage have been known to enhance the protection of the environment through indigenous knowledge (discussed in the later sections). The museums, especially community museums, for instance, have made an effort to engage young people through cultural heritage clubs, which are more than 150 across Uganda. The museums have also contributed to the safeguarding of unique and threatened aspects of Uganda’s heritage. Sites and monuments, including historic buildings, are important in preserving and showcasing our collective memory as a country and tell our journeys in terms of social life, governance and administration. Despite its importance, our cultural heritage is usually not adequately supported, maintained, or documented, and people’s awareness of its value is still alarmingly low. At the turn of 2020, Uganda just like other countries in the world was hit by the Coronavirus (COVID-19 pandemic), which virtually brought all aspects of life to a standstill. Tourism, particularly cultural tourism that provides a string on which the safeguarding of cultural heritage is fastened, was severely affected, exacerbating the dire situation that the cultural heritage industry was in before the pandemic. This paper examines the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the safeguarding of Uganda’s cultural heritage both tangible and intangible, which includes museums, heritage sites, historic buildings on the tangible side, and the creative industries, traditional or indigenous medicines, and traditional values, on the intangible side. The paper further explores the opportunities and challenges that the pandemic poses to the protection and promotion of our heritage industry.

"Heritage-for-Peace and Development": An Opportunity Not to be Missed

The dominant approach of the international community to the subject of our research and teaching is to instrumentalise cultural heritage safeguarding within stabilisation and development programs in post-conflict regions. Since the turn of the Millennium, cultural heritage safeguarding has been among the crucial instruments used by the international community, especially in post-conflict regions, for: reconciliation and peace building; development of a common sense of belonging; promoting mutually respectful dialogue in culturally complex societies. Many international organizations, such as the UN, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, NATO, the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, the World Bank, the United Nations Development Program, the Council of Europe, and the EU, promote the management of ethno-political conflicts as their priority. Their agendas follow the principles of a) the overall relevance of cultural heritage for society and b) the importance of social networks for peace-building and peacekeeping in post-traumatic contexts. Instead of opposing this peace and development oriented paradigm from either anti-realist or nationalist perspective, we can recognize it, apply it and use it to improve the social status of social sciences and humanities in Serbia. Anthropological and critical heritage studies-based criticism of UNESCO-driven, state-governed ICH safeguarding fails to comprehend that standard academic constructivist analyses of a community’s key symbols of identity are offensive from the native’s point of view. Our typical analyses unwittingly confuse, annoy or even insult a great majority of the wider public who view/perceive collective identity as something given, inherited and real analogously to the objects and processes of the physical world. Consequently, our theoretical work counterindicates both peacekeeping, stability-building efforts by the international community in post-conflict regions and the goals of critical social science (which it nominally represents). Hence, a novel approach is required, one prioritising heritage stakeholder inclusion (and not our theoretical or ethnoreligious commitments). It is precisely the studies of nationalism and its consequences which forbid us to think of heritage as something useful, a counter-intuitive method for achieving fundamental anthropological goals. As communities regularly perceive their identities as objective and real, and see a critical social theory approach to their customs and traditions as confusing, non-academic, illegitimate or even offensive, I here propose a shift from constructionist criticism, standard in anthropology, to realist instrumentalism, typical of ethnology, in order to boost ICH safeguarding potential for achievement of both social and disciplinary-specific goals.

Digitalization and 3D Documentation Techniques Applied to Two Pieces of Visigothic Sculptural Heritage in Merida Through Structured Light Scanning

Technological advancements have a great impact on the dissemination and understanding of the cultural heritage reality due to innovative techniques. These innovations are based on high-precision and high-resolution technologies that allow for the geometric documentation of any object within the fields of history and the arts. Through these techniques, new proposals may be studied and objects can be placed in any historical context. Three-dimensional (3D) digitization allows one to obtain a digital 3D model, which can be handled virtually and recreated at any historical period, enabling the conservation and safeguarding of cultural heritage. Society currently demands new visualization techniques that allow interacting with architectural and artistic heritage, which have been applied in numerous virtual reconstructions of historical sites or singular archaeological pieces. This project allowed us to geometrically document a reused piece with two surfaces (shield and columns) and a plaque of the city of Merida using a structured light scanner from a theoretical-practical perspective. The 3D virtual reconstruction of the pieces was accomplished within this study. The generation of QR codes enabled the interactive display of the heritage pieces. Likewise, a proposal was made to reuse the aforementioned pieces through virtual archaeology. The initial hypothesis is based on the possible existence of a Visigothic niche as an original form. This research reports significant advances in the conservation and exploitation of cultural heritage.

A decision-making tool for transition towards efficient lighting in a context of safeguarding of cultural heritage in support of the 2030 agenda

Minor historical centres constitute a historical and urban architectural heritage. In this context the theme of urban lighting is gaining increasing interest. There are many aspects to consider since it is necessary to implement strategies that aim at energy saving, reducing pollution and degradation, safety, historical context enhancements, as well as their conservation and attention towards contemporary users. Therefore, this article illustrates a multidisciplinary methodology aimed at identifying strategies and best practices for upgrading lighting scenarios in historical contexts of value. The research is organized into four steps, the first of which is the cognitive process, the second is critical synthesis, the third is the definition of strategies and project scenarios, and the fourth step is related to development of the life-cycle cost analysis (LCCA) and CO2 estimation. The framework is verified by applying it to a case study in the Abruzzo Region, Italy, identifying three scenarios with different strategic objectives. In the Italian case study, from an economic point of view, the LCCA made it possible to demonstrate the economic value of the investment, in addition to the fact that the optimal configuration of the lighting scenario redevelopment project leads to a reduction in CO2 emissions of almost 6 tonnes per year compared to the existing situation. Moreover, this research contributes to implement the 2030 Agenda and, in particular, Goals 7 and 11. Finally, it has put in place the foundations of theme of urban lighting in value context and it has helped to bring research gaps identified.

From Acquisition to Presentation—The Potential of Semantics to Support the Safeguard of Cultural Heritage

The signature of the 2019 Declaration of Cooperation on advancing the digitization of cultural heritage in Europe shows the important role that the 3D digitization process plays in the safeguard and sustainability of cultural heritage. The digitization also aims at sharing and presenting cultural heritage. However, the processing steps of data acquisition to its presentation requires an interdisciplinary collaboration, where understanding and collaborative work is difficult due to the presence of different expert knowledge involved. This study proposes an end-to-end method from the cultural data acquisition to its presentation thanks to explicit semantics representing the different fields of expert knowledge intervening in this process. This method is composed of three knowledge-based processing steps: (i) a recommendation process of acquisition technology to support cultural data acquisition; (ii) an object recognition process to structure the unstructured acquired data; and (iii) an enrichment process based on Linked Open Data to document cultural objects with further information, such as geospatial, cultural, and historical information. The proposed method was applied in two case studies concerning the watermills of Ephesos terrace house 2 and the first Sacro Monte chapel in Varallo. These application cases show the proposed method’s ability to recognize and document digitized cultural objects in different contexts thanks to the semantics.

Sustainability, cultural heritage, tourism and participation. Guidelines for the management of an indigenous people in Argentina

espanolLa sustentabilidad en la provincia de San Luis (Argentina) con eje en la salvaguardia del patrimonio cultural ha sido parte de los objetivos de la agenda politica desde comienzos del siglo XXI. En este marco jugaron un papel central las poblaciones indigenas, para las cuales se efectuaron programas de restitucion de tierras y construccion de viviendas con el fin de promover su reactivacion cultural. En este contexto, por medio de un estudio cualitativo, basado en la realizacion de entrevistas, observaciones participantes y relevamiento de fuentes documentales, se analiza el caso de construccion de Pueblo Ranquel, un asentamiento de familias indigenas rankulches, inaugurado en 2009 cuyo surgimiento, orientado a la promocion turistica, fue promovido principalmente desde sectores gubernamentales. El objetivo final de este trabajo es presentar una serie de lineamientos que emergen del analisis del caso y de una reflexion teorico-metodologica sobre la importancia de la participacion de los distintos actores involucrados en las politicas culturales. EnglishSustainability in the province of San Luis (Argentina), centered on the safeguarding of cultural heritage, has been part of the objectives of the political agenda since the beginning of the 21st century. In this framework, the indigenous populations played a central role, for whom land restitution and housing construction programs were carried out in order to promote their cultural reactivation. In this context, through a qualitative study based on conducting interviews, participant observations and a survey of documentary sources, the case of the construction of “Pueblo Ranquel” is analyzed, a settlement of Rankulche indigenous families inaugurated in 2009, whose emergence, aimed at promoting tourism, was promoted mainly by government sectors. The final objective of this work is to present a series of guidelines that emerge from the analysis of the case and from a theoretical-methodological reflection on the importance of the participation of the different actors involved in cultural policies.

Applied geophysics to support the cultural heritage safeguard: A quick and non-invasive method to evaluate the dynamic response of a great historical interest building

An experimental dynamic characterization was carried out through the execution of non-invasive geophysical surveys, in order to obtain useful information for planning interventions aimed at protecting the structure. In particular, HVSR and MASW methods allowed to reconstruct the subsoil seismostratigrafic structure, and HSSR and RDM techniques was employed to obtain the structure dynamic properties.It was highlighted a complex dynamic of the building, probably linked to the numerous modifications it has undergone over the centuries. A clusters analysis, carried out on the fundamental frequency values detect in the measurement sites, allowed to identify structure parts with homogeneous dynamic behaviour. Comparing the vibration frequencies of the building with the ground ones, there seems to be no possibility that soil-structure resonance phenomena may occur.

Contribution to the Knowledge of Biodeteriogenic Flora on Three Historical Calabrian (Southern Italy) Churches

The effect of biodeteriogenic living organisms on historical and archeological sites is a well-known problem affecting the world’s cultural heritage. Indeed, the growth inside the bricks of shrubs and herbs roots can cause breakage, collapse and, detachment of materials. The knowledge of the spontaneous vascular flora present on monuments is essential for protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage. In this paper, we identify and describe biodeteriogenic vascular flora of three historical Calabrian (Southern Italy) churches, showing the relationship between plant biodiversity and exposure and building material of churches. The species present on the wall and in perimeter for each church were sampled noting substrate type, surface inclination (vertical or horizontal) and exposure. The total number of plant species recorded was 27. Hemicryptophytes (41%) prevail over the other biological forms and the most represented families are that of the Asteraceae. Parietaria judaica is the only species present in all three sites. Substrate type, climatic condition and surface inclination affect the floristic composition. Sixteen out of 27 species grow on vertical surfaces, all Geophythes and Chamaephytes grow on horizontal surfaces, while Therophytes were rather on vertical surfaces. A significant difference was found in the Hazard Index values in the three churches. Only one site, presents a high average value of Hazard Index, due to the simultaneous presence of Ailanthus altissima, Ficus carica, Rubus ulmifolius and Sambucus nigra. The data collected indicate that the flora growing on wall of three Calabrian churches partially reflects the floristic context in which they are located. The diversity of the vegetational spectrum is remarkable, most of the plants are ruderal herbaceous, many weeds and invasive, and for the most part typical of the Mediterranean environment. The data collected contribute to the knowledge of the spontaneous vascular flora present on three historical Calabrian churches and their biodiversity, also in terms of conservation interest, considering its biodeteriogenic potential in the evaluation of the impact of the vegetation on each monument.

Natural biocides and bio-calcite: innovative tools for cultural heritage

Lithic artworks as churches, historical buildings and every usage object are our precious cultural heritage, memory of our past history step needed to build present and future. These artistic heritages with morphological, chemical and physical properties totally dissimilar make they a “unicum”, characterized by a specific vulnerability. Their decay is unavoidable, but it is a challenge for the humankind to protect and preserve them. Thus far, solutions for the safeguard of cultural heritage are usually based on chemical procedures to remove biodeteriogen agents, but these substances can be hazardous to the environment, to public health and to stone materials itself because it is not known about the consequences of repeated applications. Then the restoration methods require innovative approaches, eco-friendly and not harmful to human beings and the environment. Aiming at this objective a deeply study on two rupestrian churches located in Matera (Italy) was carried out in order to prevent and/or control microbial and biological evolution, and to exploit the potential of some bacterial species in the interventions of stone consolidation. Surface analyses of detached rocks to evaluate the (i) stone composition, (ii) isolation and characterization of biological and (iii) microbial colonizers present on the stone surfaces were formerly performed. In vitro bioactivity test against autotrophic/heterotrophic species isolated was carried out using secondary metabolites extracted from cultivated crops and spontaneous herbs with a strong biocidal activity (extracts from Solanum nigrum, Volutaria lippii, Moricandia arvensis, Pulicaria inuloides). Finally, calcinogenic activity tests employing native bacteria (Bacillus strains) isolated on stone surfaces of the two churches constitute the conclusive research step. Glycoalkaloids inhibited all bacterial strains tested. Some strains of Bacillus to produce the greatest amount of crystals, coherent with the stone substrate, was evidenced. This research highlights the opportunity to change the way of thinking and performing recovery actions for cultural heritage. Not last-minute remediation but continuous monitoring and time by time actions to avoid the formation of aggressive colonisations.