LA PORTAPRAETORIA DI AOSTANELL’OTTOCENTO

Barbara Vinardi

DirezioneRegionaleperiBeniCulturaliePaesaggisticidelPiemonte,p.zaSanGiovanni2,Torino,

barbara.vinardi@beniculturali.it

ABSTRACT

The Porta Praetoria in Aosta, dated to the 1st century BC, after a first excavation (in 1838) lead by Carlo

Promis, went through a reconstructive and camouflage restoration conducted by engineer Chabloz, as

instructed by Canon Berard (1879). Immediatly looking not sufficient, the works were interrupted, to allow

some members of the Commission for the Conservation of Monuments and Crescentino Castelli to study a

new proposal (1888), that wasn’t actuated. After that, a few interventions took place, lead by Alfredo

d’Andrade. Between 1920 and 1950 the Porta Praetoria was object of a series of interventions, that were part

of a project for the overall structure of the Aosta town. Those works were aimed to the extrication, the

reinforcement and the enhancement of the monument, in line with the fascist ideology and with the

directions given in the ’20 by the superintendent Ernesto Schiapparelli. The building is not considered by the

inhabitants of Aosta as a ‘monument’, but as a transit passage, following to the change of the relationship

with the surrounding streets, with inadequate consideration to its role in the landscape. Nevertheless, the

Porta Praetoria didn’t lose its nature of center of the town, as it was at the same time market place and

assembly point. Equally problematic, now as back then, are the issues with the extrication from the

unnecessary addition by the city, and the possibility to restrict the work to fixing and protecting, being aware

oftheperishabilityofsuchstructures.

Parolechiave/Key-words: PortaPraetoria,Aosta,XIXcentury,conservation,valorization