Un palinsesto di architettura e natura. La protezione delle superfici dell’abbazia di San Pietro a Crapolla (Massa Lubrense) tra conoscenza e ricerca applicata

Within the cultural landscape of the Crapolla fjord in Sorrento-Amalfi Peninsula, the ruins of the Benedictine Ab-bey of St. Peter represent a synthesis between human actions and nature. Built overlooking the sea at the end of the 9th century, the complex appears today as the result of the interaction between context’s peculiarities and con-structive skills. In such a site, besides being the place of sedimentation of the traces of time, the surfaces represent the interface between the architecture and a landscape strongly influenced by the sea and the action of weather-ing. Considering these premises, the paper aims at presenting some of the outcomes of an in-progress interdisciplinary research involving restoration and geomaterials experts carried out – through stratigraphic reading and laboratory analysis on the materials (limestones, plasters, mortars, cocciopesto, beaten lapillus) – to interpret the technical pe-culiarities and the main vulnerabilities, as well as to reflect on ways to ensure the protection of this fragile palimpsest.