ABSTRACT

Through history mostly all monuments inside living cities have undergone some kind of intervention. Sometimes the interventions were for the purpose of conserving the building, sometimes they were not. Only the 19th century brought a kind of awareness about the necessity to conserve the monuments as they are our true memory of past. The methodologies used were different, sometimes with respect of the old materials and techniques sometimes based only on new ones. After the front of the Temple of Augustus in Pula was destroyed by a bomb in the year 1945 the team of historians, archaeologists, architects and technicians decided to undergo a complete restoration, conservation and reconstruction of the monument. They did the job with costs and time that would be impossible today. The team used all it's knowledge, experience and good will to execute the task in the best possible manner to give a long life to an ancient monument for the future generations. All the professionals were sure they were giving respect to ancient materials and technologies while incorporating modern ones only for the reason of strengthening more the structure. However, the outcome of the campaign is already showing many problems connected to wrong decisions. Key-words: ancient temple, destruction, conservation, degradation.