Mª DEL MAR VILLAFRANCA JIMÉNEZ

Leopoldo Torres Balbás (1888-1960), architect-conservator of the Alhambra, applied for and obtained a grant from the Committee of Extension of Studies (currently CSIC, Higher Council for Scientific Research by its Spanish acronym) in 1926 to analyse the methods and procedures employed in that moment to conserve the monuments in Italy. The research project that I developed had the main objective of rebuilding that journey, in its historical and cultural context in which cartography is produced and elaborated as completely as possible, of that fertile and fundamental experience in his professional career, of which until now, relatively little is known, and it is underacknowledged. I began with the location of the manuscript notes that were the basis to create a report justifying the granted pension, conserved in his personal files (currently in the Archives of the Alhambra) and the official request to the Committee of Extension of Studies of the grant to undertake this journey of study, currently in the depths of the Archives of the Estudiantes Residence of Madrid.

Cuaderno de Viaje. Leopoldo Torres Balbás en Italia, 1926 aims to be a story, in the form of a publication, of that process that represented for the architect from Madrid, not only direct contact with the restoration works of important Italian monuments by public figures of prestige such as Gustavo Giovannoni, Antonio Muñoz, Alberto Terenzio, Orlando Grosso and Vittorio Spinazzola or the possibility of meeting the influential art historian Adolfo Venturi, but to put into practice, in his interventions in the Monumental Site of the Alhambra and Generalife, some of the most audacious ideas and solutions in the history of restoration in European Heritage, just as he, the architect himself, defended sometime later at the Congress of Athens of 1931. The project needed the necessary research from the archives and specialized libraries located in Rome and various interviews with experts, in Spain as well as Italy. Likewise, field work was undertaken that included taking inventory of the restored monuments of the decade of the 20s from the past century, object of interest of the journey of the architect from Madrid.

In this Project the aim is to dive deeper into the European nature of the Restoration Culture, revising and reinterpreting the contributions of Leopoldo Torres Balbás and his contemporary Italian colleagues as a shared heritage by both countries whose similarities have been analysed in the context of a new narrative of Cultural Heritage perception with the objective of favouring the understanding and the recognition of a common cultural European legacy founded on the process of transferring aesthetic ideas and values.

The research process developed over the three-month stay at the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome had two complementing guidelines, on one side, the localization of the documentation in the specialized archives (Archivio dell’Associazione Artistica fra i Cultori di Architettura. Fondo Gustavo Giovannoni) that prove the bonds and relations that Leopoldo Torres Balbás had with his Italian colleagues through letters and publications with dedications by the authors, carried out in the Archivio Centrale dello Stato for the profiles of Antonio Muñoz, Alberto Terenzio and Vittorio Spinazzola. 

To delve into the urban and territorial context of the city of Rome in the second decade of the twentieth century, it turned out to be necessary to consult the graphic archives of the Museum of Rome. Therein is a complete collection of images that reveal operations of grand impact for the Roman heritage such as those undertaken in Augustus’ Forum and the Market of Trajan whose excavations and demolitions were visited and analysed by Torres Balbás on his journey of 1926.

On the other side, the bibliographies of the publications of the authors with whom Torres Balbás contacted were consulted, revised, and updated, the specialized bibliographies were systemized, incorporating registers of contributions ranging from reference texts of the History of European Restoration, such as the Minutes of the Conference of Athens of 1931, to the main specialists of the lives and work of the analysed persons. In this sense the libraries of the ICCROM (International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property), of the Faculty of Architecture of la Sapienza, and the Library of Roman Archaeology and History of Art were the most complete, adding the Library and Archive of the Scuola Normale and University of Pisa, for the archive of Adolfo Venturi, the Library and Archive of the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome, the Federico Zeri Foundation in Bologna, and the Giorgio Cini Foundation of Venecia. The work incorporates current photographic documentation of the monuments that Torres Balbás visited and the recording of an audio-visual piece, recorded in Granada and Rome, that includes the interviews to some of the main Spanish and Italian specialists in the History of Monument Restoration.

Share, describe, learn, converse, participate, collaborate, listen, or debate are part of the experience lived as a researcher in residence at the Spanish Royal Academy in Rome, apart from enjoying the interesting cultural programme. It is a unique opportunity to develop capacities and afront new professional goals in the future. But all of that would not be enough without the support and human team that keeps up the day-to-day cultural activity of this institution that works so well and that all the residents consider our forever home. Thank you for making it possible.