Sentinelle della memoria. Le commissioni conservatrici tra trasformazioni urbane e tutela dei monumenti

Many Italian cities in the post-unification phase found themselves, like Naples, having to govern those processes necessary to adapt them to the needs of the nascent bourgeois class. This transformation/conservation dichotomy which gave rise, in the wake of Northern European elaborations, to the question of the ‘old centres’ saw the Conservative Commissions arise in the various cities of Italy at the end of the 19th century, engaged in the work of protecting the cultural heritage and the so-called homeland memories. The essay analyzes the cultural and operational role of these commissions, with particular reference to the Municipal Commission for the Conservation of Monuments of Naples which, albeit with limited powers, strongly influenced the choices of conservation, transformation and modification of the monuments and the urban fabric of the city.