The "Terme Del Corallo" in Livorno, Italy, a Contribution to Try Going Beyond the Abandon

Abstract

In Livorno, along the Mediterranean sea, in Italy, there is a terrific case of abandon, a historical monument made of fine art elements left to complete decay. The name of the place is "Terme del Corallo" and at its beginning it was a bath area exploiting the salt waters. After its first abandon, no serious efforts were done in years to come behind this situation, the poor and slow moves towards the restoration were stopped and slowed down by inefficiencies and infinite political considerations. The monument is now on the edge of collapse, showing a full failure of cultural preservation. According to this visible shame, a compact, almost viral, approach was started one year ago, entering the area in official (and less official) moments, a photogrammetric, photographical and direct survey was taken to document the condition of this monument. Further research was aimed to integrate and enhance the existing (poor) survey drawings and developing a restoration hypothesis recover to a solid, realistic and effective life to the whole monument. This paper will present the work made and the procedures, processing and results came out from this direct approach to this badly abandoned monument. The aim is to put in evidence this wrong situation, and to promote a sensitization about the correct choice to be taken for this monument before this rare artistic place from the XX Century will get completely lost.