Lizori is a classic triangular hill castle, of great importance as rare example of a place that has maintained its structure to our days. Built along the NE – SW axis, its houses are built with a simple structure, parallel to the hillside. The orographic slope allows for two storeys houses, both on the street level. The first storeys faced Northward, while the lower storeys housed animals and services. The first interventions were made in 1976. The conditions of the houses was really bad. Most part of the main walls had been propped up or had collapsed. Roofs and floors were in ruins, and some of them were completely destroyed. There was almost no foundations, the walls being directly on the stone. This is typical when the walls of the lower storeys have a wall made of stone.
The analysis of the causes that led to the degradation allowed for a technical intervention. Among the four basic elements which constitute the structure, natural stone, brickwork, wood and mortar, only the last two seemed to be highly susceptible to deterioration, both through natural deterioration (endogenous action), and through the action of external factors (exogenous action). The second deterioration is probably worse, because it starts a chain reaction. The restoration technique needs to study all processes in reverse (sometimes through simple intuition), so that, once seen the damage, it is possible to understand what caused it and intervene, eliminating the cause with a simple maintenance.
The different solutions depend on the kind of deterioration, which avoids standardised and useless interventions. This method avoids a kind of intervention based on figurative and material culture, thus guaranteeing a good result and the preservation of the place, which also leaves the relationship between work of art and craftsmanship intact. All the materials employed have mostly been taken from old materials. Apart form these, new material was added, worked with traditional methods (very rare and expensive). In case it needed to be substituted, all the material was stored for a possible future use. Under the static profile, all the elements that could not be used were used for new functions, thus integrating this new functional use with an aesthetic use. This kind of solution can be seen inside some houses, as well as in the streets. The use of an “open system” rather than an industrialised method made with predetermined compounds has guaranteed the use of rare techniques (see the squaring of girders) and the creative flexibility for the solution of different problems.
The analysis of the causes that led to the degradation allowed for a technical intervention. Among the four basic elements which constitute the structure, natural stone, brickwork, wood and mortar, only the last two seemed to be highly susceptible to deterioration, both through natural deterioration (endogenous action), and through the action of external factors (exogenous action). The second deterioration is probably worse, because it starts a chain reaction. The restoration technique needs to study all processes in reverse (sometimes through simple intuition), so that, once seen the damage, it is possible to understand what caused it and intervene, eliminating the cause with a simple maintenance.
The different solutions depend on the kind of deterioration, which avoids standardised and useless interventions. This method avoids a kind of intervention based on figurative and material culture, thus guaranteeing a good result and the preservation of the place, which also leaves the relationship between work of art and craftsmanship intact. All the materials employed have mostly been taken from old materials. Apart form these, new material was added, worked with traditional methods (very rare and expensive). In case it needed to be substituted, all the material was stored for a possible future use. Under the static profile, all the elements that could not be used were used for new functions, thus integrating this new functional use with an aesthetic use. This kind of solution can be seen inside some houses, as well as in the streets. The use of an “open system” rather than an industrialised method made with predetermined compounds has guaranteed the use of rare techniques (see the squaring of girders) and the creative flexibility for the solution of different problems.
