To restore is to reconstruct. About the new Monastery of Sant Llorenç de Guardiola de Berguedà (Barcelona)

Abstract

The Spanish Historic Heritage Law banishes the reconstruction of monuments. But history shows that reconstruction have always been done in restoration. Perhaps is better asking ourselves how and why. Venice Charter asks us to transmit monuments in the full richness of their authenticity but it doesn’t define the concept of authenticity itself. A monument which space has already been lost is not authentic, so its reconstruction becomes the only way to recover the lost spatial sense and meaning of it. Sant Llorenç Monastery’s reconstruction is the synthesis of a methodological discourse based in these principles.