ABSTRACT
Sempiternity is the cosmological time dimension of the Christian persona as a duality of body and soul. The allegorical language of scriptures is translated in allegorical representation. Liturgical rites are a careful metaphoric representation of the theology of the church. Built conservation is a creative process which allows for a building to change over time, and is concerned with the problems and modes of combining the old with the new. Several Modern and Contemporary conservation projects carry the Renaissance stamp of sempiternity by wrapping existing structures with a second skin extending a building's life into the future. Hansen Maria Fabricius describes this early baroque intervention initiated by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo as a modernization' tending to serialize the interior, by covering columns shafts, capital and trabeation with stucco. The column capital freed in the twentieth century emerges from its vestment, just like the face of the Sancta Sanctorum icon from the silver casing.
