Between rediscovery and restoration of the Middle Ages. The ville turrifié in the work of Georges Rohault de Fleury in Pisa

Abstract

The paper focuses on an original aspect of the work of Georges Rohault de Fleury (1835-1904), who, from 1853 onwards, stayed in Pisa several times and for a long time to analyse medieval architecture and art, to which he dedicated about twenty years of work. The centrality of the theme of the ville turrifié and the tower-house emerge in the framework of the studies of the Tuscan monuments and especially of Pisa, which he investigates intending to reconstruct a city's history. In particular, the theme of civil architecture lends itself to reconstructive hypotheses since little seems to have remained of the original structures, which nevertheless emerge, at some points, from the plastered facades of the palaces, from which de Fleury elaborates conjectures and reliefs. The tower house, for de Fleury directly borrowed from the defensive structures, is the typology that distinguishes the diffused urban fabric of a real tower city like Pisa, which seems to have a remarkable reputation in building skill. The paper wants, therefore, to frame the work of Georges Rohault de Fleury in the broader context of studies on the rediscovery of the Middle Ages, concerning the close links with the French culture (not only de Fleury, but also Verdier and Cattois, Labruste, etc.), and the fallout on the restorationreinvention in its long period and the different declinations.

Keywords

• casa-torre
• pisa
• medioevo
• rohault de fleury
• restauro