ABSTRACT
The paper aims to illustrate the restoration process that interested one of the most important 15th-century buildings in Italy to stand as a point of reference in the post-earthquake reconstruction governance, an almost mandatory stage in the management of all actions relating to its recovery in the aftermath of the May 2012 seismic event. The conservation track includes a multifaceted restoration project that comprises not only the restoration of the decorated surfaces but also the function renewal of its spaces and paths, resulting in an illumination plan intended to improve the wall- painted cycle. The assessment of the damage mechanism activated by the seismic actions and the analysis of the crack’s framework addressed the structural interventions enhancement plan intended to repair the damage and improve the overall seismic response of the whole structural unit. In addition, it was the opportunity to rethink the museum’s functionality by arranging a single broad itinerary covering the exhibition spaces, the astonishing rooms on the main floor, and new rooms on the ground floor, shaped by removing the mezzanine floor in order to recall the original spaces. The complexity and variety of spaces that characterize the building, the multiplicity of situations and testimonial traces of the Palazzo itself, and the great variety of works present in the exhibition itinerary required a sensitive approach to define a homogeneous and coherent museum path and, at the same time, to appraise the visiting experience with specific solutions. Thus, the earthquake created the opportunity to reconsider the museum framework of the entire palace and re-establish it in its earliest volumes, which had been lost or were arduous to be interpreted due to the building’s several uses over the centuries.
