St. Peter Tuscania

Before the earthquake, the apse of the church underwent several restorations.The violent earthquake of February 6, 1971 caused serious damage to the rich artistic heritage of Tuscania (VT). The most serious damage was found in the church of San Pietro, where the rose window of the main facade and part of the apse depicting the Ascension of Christ, a painting dating back to between the last quarter of the 11th century and the middle of the 12th, collapsed. From the first days after the tragedy, the Central Institute for Restoration, together with the competent authorities and the young volunteers of the Roman Archaeological Group, was engaged in a rapid intervention aimed at limiting the losses. The priority was to secure the surfaces of the mural paintings still anchored to the walls and to collect the fragments of those that had collapsed. The fragments were extracted from the rubble with great care and placed in wooden boxes, following a collection system by sector. The following year, an attempt was made at recomposition at the laboratories of the Central Institute for Restoration, an attempt that was soon abandoned due to the small size and fragility of the material.

Based on the experience gained in recomposing the fresco fragments of the sails that collapsed inside the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi in the 1997 earthquake, the ISCR has launched the project for the conservation, recomposition and valorization of the fragments of the apse fresco of San Pietro in Tuscania. The results of the first feasibility study, started in 2006, have shown that the surface potentially developed by the available fragments would correspond only to about a third of the collapsed surface. This scarcity of material has therefore suggested, since the beginning of the project, forms of valorization other than relocation in situ.

The studio participated in the role of support to RUP in the person of the architect Bozza for the operations regarding the third phase of the restoration project that saw the need for a PSC and the verification of the construction site and the various documentation.