The Bogliaco Bartolani Chapel in the Cemetery of Porte Sante, Florence. Survey and analysis for the restoration

Abstract

The Cemetery of the Porte Sante in Florence is located on San Miniato al Monte, one of the highest hills of the city. The cemetery was built in 1854 and it has always been characterized by a monumental nature. Since the end of 1800 the excavated burials were enriched with decorations, and other areas were dedicated to the creation of chapels and mausoleum made by the most famous architects of the time. Today the cemetery is not well preserved: many tombs are abandoned and there is a general need of restoration. During the Diagnostics Laboratory of the Specialization School of the University of Florence, many studies on the major chapels of the cemetery have been carried out. In this paper is presented the survey and the analysis on the state of decay of the Bogliaco Bartolani Chapel, projected in 1913 by Architect Enrico Dante Fantappiè, an Italian master of Eclecticism. This chapel is a very interesting example of the style, in which stands out the juxtaposition and contrast of different materials and crafts. The studies on the chapel follows a line that go from an initial photographic and metric survey, to a bibliographic and archive research work and finally to an examination of the decay phenomena on the exterior façades. The final phase will be a comparison between this tomb and another example of chapel by Fantappiè, located in the same cemetery: similar construction design leads to similar state of decay. Moreover the workflow presented could be an interesting example of how studies can be carried out with reduced expenses in case of a very low budget. In the cemetery public and private properties (often dispersed) are converging: pushing the boundaries of proprieties is crucial to carry out a policy of recovery of one of the monumental hills of Florence.