Feature: Italy's efforts in cultural heritage preservation boosted by European major awards

Italy's efforts in cultural preservation received a significant boost earlier this week, as several conservation projects across the country were awarded Europe's highest honor in the heritage field.

A major renovation project of the Bath of Diocletian, an ancient Roman complex in the Italian capital, was among the winners of the European Union (EU) Prize for Cultural Heritage/Europa Nostra Awards 2016, which were announced on Thursday in Brussels.

Overall, 28 projects from 16 European countries were recognized the prize "for their exemplary achievements" in heritage conservation.

Three of them were Italian. A fourth individual award was given to Giulia Maria Crespi, co-founder of Italy's National Trust (FAI), for her "remarkable determination and exemplary generosity" in preserving the natural and artistic landscape of her country.

Particularly prominent were considered the conservation works carried out at the Diocletian Baths, a complex built between 298 and 306 AD and named after emperor Diocletian.

Covering 13 hectares in origin, it was the largest thermal structure ever built in ancient Rome.

"The renovation project has reopened a vital part of Rome to the public, and has reinterpreted the building to convey the significance of the Baths to visitors," the Europa Nostra Award jury wrote.

The monument had long been kept closed due to safety reasons, and was given back to visitors after some 6 years of restoration in September 2014.

"The complexity of the site was a major challenge in itself," architect Marina Magnani, in charge of the project together with museum's scientific director Rosanna Frigeri, told Xinhua.

"The complex comprises a most ancient part, that is the Roman thermal baths, and a renaissance structure that dates back to the 16th century. Plus, it is a museum, and we had to preserve its accessibility and the visitors' comfort while renovation works were on-going," she explained.

The European jurors seemed to appreciate the difficult task of working on a monument where many of the buildings overlap one another.

"Preserving the many phases of the Baths, including its use as a museum since 19th century, was a crucial element of maintaining the site's history ... (And) The use of modern interpretative materials is imaginative and a model of museology for sites of this type," the jury stated.

Public response was positive: the site has registered a 70 percent increase in the number of visitors in the last two years, according to the management.

The head of the project stressed a "collective effort" was behind the successful result.

"Many professionals were involved: art conservators, structural engineers, chemists, installation designers, experts in illuminating engineering ... It was a teamwork," Magnani said.

Another Italian project called the Granaries of Memory, and related to "the intangible heritage of food culture in Italy", was awarded the European prize in the research category.

Researchers with the University of Gastronomic Sciences based in the northwestern city of Bra, in Piedmont region, collected hundreds of interviews within various local communities to capture people's memories of food and regional cuisine.

Then, they made them available to the public through an online video archive.

Granaries of Memory "has the potential to be considered on a wider scale, and should be observed in Europe as an example of good practice in conserving intangible heritage," the jury stated.

Narrations over food and gastronomic traditions came to encompass "personal history lessons recounting the difficulty of farm work, or memories of the war period in the early 20th century," it noted.

"We have so far uploaded over 1,000 interviews on the archive, and further 500 are yet to be elaborated," Piercarlo Grimaldi, dean of the university and head of the project, told Xinhua.

Four full-time researchers have been working on them in the last 5 to 6 years, the professor added.

The idea of collecting "oral and gestural expressions of the popular culture" was in the mind of the cultural anthropologist since the 1970s, when he was still a student.

Yet, it started becoming real only in mid-2000s, when Grimaldi met Carlo Petrini, founder of the global Slow Food movement and of the Gastronomic Sciences University.

Another reason for awarding the project was that it "allowed a comprehensive involvement of the community", the jurors said.

"The engagement of participants was broad and also managed to foster interest among younger generations ... This project is an occasion to give an Award to the memory of common people," they wrote.

For the researchers, the prize came as a great source of satisfaction.

"It is most welcome, if only because the importance of oral traditions in cultural anthropology has been often underestimated," Grimaldi explained.

"Yet, our memory is also made of gestures and words, and oral traditions are an integral part of human history. (Study them) is sometime the only way you have to preserve myths and models," said Grimaldi.

Their goal now would be to broaden the research to ideally include "all the cultures in the world". Endit