A comparison of cultures through a school of architectural conservation

In these last decades, a lot of work has been done around the definition of an international way of dealing with the world heritage. A lot of Charters have been written insisting on the right of every nation to decide what is heritage for it and to have the responsibility of the final decision for conservation. This first step has been probably indispensable, but it has still an essentially ‘political’ nature . A second step is necessary for promoting a deeper comparison between people who work on the ancient buildings: architects, historians, archaeologists, scientists and so on. Along this second line the experience of the school is placed : the direct comparison on material objects, concrete issues, specific choices consents to clarify the real meaning of ‘heritage’ and ‘conservation’ for everyone of us. And to discover, as it happened in this experience that we present here, that these meanings have more similarities among them than we can image and to confirm ourselves that our cultures come from the same roots.