Giuseppe Zander restorer. The methodological approach to the conservation project

Giuseppe Zander was the "Proto" of the "Fabbrica di San Pietro": the architect who undertook the restoration of the most important complex of Christianity, after being a member of the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Art in Italy.In this capacity, the approach to the monument for Zander was of absolute respect, the knowledge of the architectural work was acquired through real sketches, annotations on the formal and constructive aspects, the building phases, the materials used, the degradation. The direct investigation was accompanied by the theoretical study with the bibliographic and archival research, from which derived the critical synthesis contained in his notebooks. From these studies emerges the full mastery of the subject and the opportunity to understand the context by an audience not necessarily made of experts, using a simple and immediate language, but at the same time cultured, full of classic quotations, from which emerges his figure of humanist.His designer activity as a restorer remains in all his projects, from which the mentioned concepts are outlined, with his careful theoretical reflection that precedes the restoration project, in which he acquires the values of the past architecture transposing them into modern forms through the use of modern techniques and technologies, in perfect union with construction techniques and local typological habits.Among many projects, we focus on the restoration of the "Collegiate Church of San Pietro" in Minturno (1966-67), in which we find the synthesis of the methodological path of Giuseppe Zander.