Heritage is a set of assets acquired by inheritance or by title. There are different types of heritage: cultural, artistic and historical. There are many cultural assets such as monumental architecture, works of art, military and defensive architecture and witnesses to the gastronomical and agricultural cultures.
Preservation is a method of not losing the values of cultural identities. Thats why it is important for us architects to think about the value of the good on which we will intervene before deciding the type of intervention. Heritage has many different values to consider like the cultural one, artistic, historical, social, economic or its authenticity and antiquity.
But its not only the physical piece of architecture or art that we have to keep properly. Other important details like the construction techniques, shapes, materials, textures, its use and its meanings are very important to keep too. Thats the way to maintain heritage correctly.
There are many different ways to preserve heritage. The interventions for the conservation are the following: preservation, decrease the flow of tourists; protection, with legal actions and administrative rules; maintenance, through punctual repairs and care taking; reapairing, in case of any damage or accident; restoration, improvement of the legibility; anastilosis, rebuilding the object with the original architectural materials; and ripristinar.
