ABSTRACT

The Autonomous Province of Bolzano is the owner of some of the most important castles in South Tyrol. Between the years 1995 and 2010 were subject to important restoration, aimed at reuse to create new museums. Among these are Tyrol Castle above the city of Merano, historic seat of the Earls of Tyrol, and the vast Firmian Castle near Bolzano, now Messner Mountain Museum. The restorations were performed with a large amount of manpower and resources. In addition to the purely conservative interventions they were also included many new elements, definitely needed to improve the functionality and usability of castles, but which also represented a chance - both to the buyer that the architects to give new contemporary architectural footprints to historic monuments. Modern forms in combination with new materials: exposed concrete, glass surfaces, black steel and the now ubiquitous Cor-Ten steel (weathering steels). It has been coined the motto “building constructed on” playing so its not strictly the fundamental principles of the “Charta of Venice” in 1964. The article provides a brief overview of some significant restoration and reuse of castles in South Tyrol, putting to question the architectural approach of interventions characterized by many new elements and materials inserted: restorations are brave, or maybe it was “exaggerated” a bit’? Where it ends Orthodoxy and where it begins Heresy in these concrete study cases?

Parole chiave/Key-words: South Tyrol, Castles, Orthodoxy, Heresy, COR-TEN steel