Il restauro delle leghe metalliche nell'era della loro riproducibilità. La Cassa Armonica nella Villa Reale di Napoli

The paper aims to investigate the issues related to the restoration of the architectural structures in iron, worked in the foundry and realized with the use of historical matrixes. The particular condition of reproducibility of constituent elements has often caused, over time, their replacement, rather than the preservation of the existing. The research proposal will deal with the case of the Cassa Armonica (Bandstand) of the Villa Reale in Naples, designed by Enrico Alvino in 1862 within the Real Passeggio of Chiaia. Today the building presents a state of advanced deterioration caused by corrosion of the iron elements and lack of maintenance. This situation has had a recent progressive worsening following the renovation of the Villa and the construction of a new metro station nearby. After the America’s Cup 2012, setted in the seafront of the Villa, the large crowning of the Music Box, made in cast iron and colored glass, that characterized the image of the main axis of the Villa, was dismantled and deposited in the building yard of the metro. These conditions have impacted on the public enjoyment of the building and have raised issues related to the need for a restoration aimed at preserving the architectural elements of the Music Box without replace the iron structure. The easy reproducibility of the metallic elements of the building, that today is possible to get thanks to industrial techniques, should not be, in any way, a viable solution for the restoration work