ABSTRACT
Romanticism had antecedents in the back-to-nature philosophy of Rousseau, and was seen in the search for freedom, individuality, expression, and creativity in literature, arts and religion. The age of romanticism became a key moment in the development of the new approach to the conservation and restoration of historic objects and places. The modern historical consciousness provided a new approach founded on a respect for the original style as in Germany and France, or for religious reasons, as in England. Historic buildings such as the castle of Marienburg and the cathedrals of Cologne and Magdeburg, were conceived of as 'national monuments', and restored to transmit a particular message. The buildings of transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic were no less valuable than a pure product of a style; they expressed a gradation of the art that would be lost without them.
