Tra teoria e prassi. I restauri di Raffaello Delogu in Abruzzo

In 1953, thanks to the experience gained during the years of reconstruction in Sardinia, Delogu reached Abruzzo, marked by war damage as well as by the still uncompensated wounds of the 1915 earthquake. Thus, he began a careful study of the damaged buildings, such as the church of S. Pietro in Alba Fucens, the cathedral of S. Panfilo in Sulmona and the Piccolomini castle in Celano. The research that Delogu carried out arose from a completely innovative approach, based on the consideration of the history of architecture as an integral part of the history of art. Evidently influenced both by his training as an archaeologist, and by the aesthetics of Benedetto Croce ‒ who was animating the national and international cultural debate since the 1930s ‒ Delogu eliminated any interest in typological or chronological categories. By applying this approach, Delogu undertook the restoration of the church of S. Pietro (1955-1957), mentioned by Cesare Brandi as the best intervention carried out in post-war Italy for the correct balance achieved between the historical-artistic aspects and the static aspects. The praise given to Delogu’s intervention by Brandi has decreed over the years an ever-increasing collective appreciation, difficult to question, which the contribution tries to reread, highlighting the theoretical reasons that guided it in the operational phase.