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Conservation work on cultural heritage occurs mostly ‘behind the scenes’, hidden away from the general public. Research has shown, however, that there is considerable interest from tourists and locals alike to gain insights into conservation practice. While this can be done through visits to conservation laboratories or heritage sites, an additional tool to complement these visits is to provide documentary films of ongoing conservation work.
In the summer of 2016, a group of international master’s students from different study programmes at Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg visited Florence to study issues related to the preservation of cultural heritage. In particular, they examined conservation-related work being done at the Courtyard of Michelozzo in the Palazzo Vecchio, where Giorgio Vasari originally decorated the upper wall sections and ceiling with frescoes in 1565. Due to daily wear and tear, which has been exacerbated by a high number of visitors as well as climatic conditions, conservation work became necessary to address soiled painted surfaces, disintegrating plaster and missing sections of the plaster and paint layers.
This collection of papers addresses a variety of topics relating to the wall paintings by Vasari, as well as threats and tools to protect and conserve them and other cultural heritage sites that are faced with growing tourism. This student project was carried out in collaboration with the UNESCO Office of the Municipality of Florence (Carlo Francini and Chiara Bocchio), the Fine Arts Department of the Municipality of Florence (Giorgio Caselli), the director of the conservation work (Fabio Sforzi), wall painting conservators of the Vasari frescoes (Cristina Conti and Alessandra Popple), the Department of Architectural Conservation at Università di Firenze (Giuseppe Centauri and Daniela Chiesi) and the BTU Media Centre (Ralf Schuster).
Conservation of heritage sites is an integral part of history and culture through which new generations can learn about their forefathers education, professionalism, cultural characteristics as well as their civilization. Almost all countries of the world tend to conserve their historical sites for their own generations and travellers from abroad. Despite Bangladeshs economy is becoming stronger, it is not paying enough attention to the development of archaeology to conserve its heritage sites. Unlike many other developing countries, Bangladesh tends to considers it a luxury to preserve it’s heritage sites. It is mainly because of the scarcity of land. The tiny country has a huge population (about 180 million), the density of which is perhaps the highest in the world.
Apart from some very significant heritage sites, most others are awfully neglected. Lack of education and awareness among the respective local people and other stakeholders are also responsible for most of the heritage sites facing threats of demolition, vandalism, losing authenticity and integrity.
Panamnagar, the case study for this thesis paper, is not apart from the above scenario. It is the last surviving intake city of lost Bengal. The place witnessed Mughal emperor, British rule, the partition of Bengal, Liberation war of Bangladesh, Hindu-Muslim riot, illegal habitation of people, forced eviction and abundance. The historic city went through lots of historical events and is still standing as a testimony to the golden era of Bengal. Currently, this heritage site is facing multiple threats to its existence and authenticity. The city is vacated by the authority - the Department of Archaeology. But as the local people are not aware of the historic value of the site, they are not at all cooperating with the authority. Meanwhile, the authority is trying to incorporate adaptive reuse of the site to give life to it again and collect revenue for the maintenance. But they are doing it without assessing the cultural significance of the site properly, which could be a potential threat for the authenticity of the heritage site. Thus, this paper has focused on assessing the cultural significance of the heritage site, with a hope that it will help the authority to make policy decisions for the conservation of the site more cautiously. To assess the cultural significance properly, history and architectural significance are described briefly. A site analysis has been conducted to understand the current site condition properly. The paper concludes with statements in support of the cultural significance of Panamnagar site and recommends appropriate conservation tools to sustain its significance.