A study for the enhancement of the religious complex of the Orthodox church of the Annunciation in Nazareth

By Michele Culatti

The Study for the Enhancement of the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth comprises a development proposal for the Annunciation religious complex in Nazareth in Israel, which, with its indoor and outdoor areas, encloses inestimable symbolic and cultural values but is also suffering from the incredible pressure caused by the constant and heavy flow of visitors from the both people of Nazareth and tourists. Consequently, the development approach required combining the preservation of the site with a method to ensure it is compatible with the growing and varied functions it has to satisfy. To achieve this, studies were conducted into the forms, functions and meanings of the various parts of the church and the surrounding urban fabric, and included a survey and graphic representation of the religious complex, identifying the levels of decline and the potential quality that could be expressed by the multiple tangible and intangible values contained in both the complex itself and the surrounding neighbourhood. The analytical results enabled drafting a proposal of project indications addressed to the principles of value, as expressed by Italian legislation regarding cultural assets and by international doctrine (ICOMOS, UNESCO). The project proposals aim at modulating human pressure on the religious complex, while guaranteeing adequate services for inhabitants and tourists alike and an enhanced visibility of the site.

Biography of Michele Culatti
Michele Culatti (Rovigo, Italy, 1969). Graduated in Architecture in 2001 from the IUAV – University Institute of Architecture in Venice, in 2009 he obtained the title of Research Doctor in Engineering with Trento University. Analyst and evaluator of the forms, functions and meanings of urban and territorial fabrics and the works they contain, he mainly concentrates on the external quality of infrastructures. His work is addressed to the interdisciplinary interpretation and evaluation of projects, which involves outlining the correct methods to investigate the complex work-context relations, with special focus on the morphological features of the construction with respect to its use. Of his various works on landscape development, we should mention his special contribution to The Independent Historical and Visual Impact Assessment Report for the Golden Horn Metro Crossing Bridge (Istanbul) and The Assessment of the Insertion in the landscape of the Istanbul Strait Road Tube Crossing Project ‘Eurasia Tunnel’ (Istanbul).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Il Prato
• Release date: Dec 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9788863362077

Book preview

Edited by Arch. Michele Culatti

In collaboration with Arch. Laura Astegno AR

Marta Boscolo Marchi DPhil

Dott. Maurizio Merlo

Arch. Viviana Martini

Arch. Alessandro Stocco

With the supervision of Arch. Renzo Ravagnan and Sharif Sharif Safadi DPhil

ISBN: 9788863362077

ebook by ePubMATIC.com

The Istituto Veneto per I Beni Culturali – IVBC (Venice Institute for Cultural Heritage), a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of cultural heritage, has worked in the Holy Land for several years. The meeting with Palestine was neither accidental, nor decided: probably it had to happen. It was the result of meetings that marked the future of the school, such as when in 1997 we met the municipality of Nazareth, Sharif Sharif DPhil and in particular the Greek-Orthodox community of Nazareth, who since 1998 have supported and contributed to our presence in the Holy Land. In those years the IVBC participated in the Nazareth 2000 project and the political situation, thanks to the Oslo Accords, seemed to evolve towards the peace and the recognition of Palestinian rights, especially of the self-determination one. The Institute therefore thought to give their contribution. I am convinced that in a society where too much is destroyed someone must preserve, where horror often prevails someone must bring out beauty, where the memory is often evanescent someone must retain the traces of the human path; someone must return works of art to splendor and harmony, since our existence is nourished by beauty, as well as by truth and freedom.

The Greek-Orthodox community have shared this conviction, promoting the project for the development of the basilica of the Annunciation, of which they are a strong believer. If the Institute have offered work and skills, the community have reciprocated with their great hospitality, trust, and active support. All the faithful and all those who have contributed to this project deserve our deepest gratitude.

Renzo Ravagnan

As a curator of this work I would like to thank Renzo who has given me the privilege of facing an extraordinary issue in an exceptional place, Sharif who led me in the plot of the values of these places, the Greek-Orthodox community for their welcome and accommodation, and my collaborators Maurizio, Laura, Viviana, Alessandro, Marta, Sara, who with eve some criticism have been on my side with active participation and without whom this work would not have been possible.

Michele Culatti

"Il nostro sguardo percorre lo spazio e ci dà l’illusione del rilievo e della distanza. E’ proprio così che costruiamo lo spazio, con un alto e un basso, una sinistra e una destra, un davanti e un dietro, un vicino e un lontano.

Quando niente arresta il nostro sguardo, il nostro sguardo va molto lontano. Ma se non incontra niente, non vede niente, non vede quel che incontra. Lo spazio è ciò che arresta lo sguardo, ciò su cui inciampa la vista: l’ostacolo, dei mattoni, un angolo, un punto di fuga. Lo spazio è quando c’è un angolo, quando c’è un arresto, quando bisogna girare perché si ricominci. Non ha nulla di ectoplasmatico, lo spazio; ha dei bordi, lo spazio, non corre in tutti i sensi: fa di tutto affinché le rotaie delle ferrovie si incontrino ben prima dell’infinito."

"Our gaze travels through space and gives us the illusion of relief and distance. That is how we construct space, with an up and a down, a left and a right, an in front and a behind, a near and a far.

When nothing arrests our gaze, it goes a very long way. But if it meets with nothing, it sees nothing, it sees only what it meets. Space is what arrests our gaze, what our sight stumbles over: the obstacle, some bricks, an angle, a vanishing point. Space is when there is an angle, when there is a stop, when we have to turn to start off again. There’s nothing ectoplasmic about space; it has edges, it doesn’t go off in all directions: it does everything to make railway lines meet muach before the infinite."

Georges Perec, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, 1974

Presentation

Civil engineering and architecture, along with design, are part of the same Area 08 as defined in the national university system. It goes without saying that the disciplinary integrations should be the rule rather than the exception. Indeed, precisely the hybrids are the fertile ground on which to develop individual themes that, benefiting from on-going diversifications, can regenerate themselves positively so as to better relate among them in a view of strong globalization, as the one in which we are irreversibly immersed.

From this point of view, indeed from the writer’s point of view (as a representative of the National University Council for the mandate given by the voters of the 22 Scientific-Disciplinary Sectors that compose Area 08), at least 4 of these Sectors have suffered profound transformations in the recent years. I refer to Icar 06-Geomatics (ex Topography), Icar 13-Design, Icar 17-Design and Icar 22-Cost Accounting. For some of them the so-to-say historical disciplinary connotation, of which I was a witness myself as a student of civil engineering in the 60s, is so-to-speak almost an archaeological founding. Fortunately, I would say, the regenerative capacity of the teachers has been able to positively orient the students, cultivating their innovative inclinations and enhancing the outcomes of their research.

I consider myself almost a historical witness of this modus operandi, as I have been following this evolutionary process since the early 70s in the Venice IUAV. Moreover, in the Italian academic world, this attitude is not so widespread as it should be, but, where it is pursued, it has given and is giving many fruits, not only in the universities, but also in professional applications, industry and public administration. It is clear that to reward innovations, therefore, we should stimulate young people to be more daring in order to achieve more ambitious goals, easier to be spent in the civil society. Aside Geomatics and Cost Accounting - about which, however, I could write a lot, but this would be out of my resolutions for this brief presentation - I intend to dwell particularly on Design SSD Icar 13 and Design SSD Icar 17. I followed them more closely, thanks to the extraordinary activity of the Conference of Deans of Design chaired by Alberto Seassaro before and by Medardo Chiapponi later, and thanks to the commitment of the UID (Union of Italian Design), and also thanks to various extensively transversal cultural initiatives of which they became non-marginal performers, playing primary roles in both architecture and civil engineering and Design. From this point of view the recent keywords proposed by Mario Docci, as well as the pushes by Carmine Gambardella with Le Vie dei Mercanti constitute a landmark of great importance, also for the respective declaratory recently updated within the CUN.

On this line is the present study that interprets in an original manner the Icar 17 rules, for the survey the of existing values of a place, and the Icar 13 for the careful interdisciplinary approach to the relationship between the morphological characteristics of a project and the functions and meanings which it assumes in the context. Moreover, Michele Culatti, curator of the work, thanks to some experiences in the field of UNESCO, as well as to his own wide and varied cultural path, has been personally deeply involved directly in this field for years, exploring disciplinary transversality and maturing methodological approaches that try to give new answers to the question of both conservation and enhancement of cultural heritage, and the quality of the project meant as a synthesis of a complex system of relationships between the work and the man.

The audacity of handling the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth in a wide-ranging manner has allowed Michele Culatti to produce this valuable work. Though not institutionally incardinated, but based on a solid partnership with the Venice IUAV University as a thesis supervisor and throughout research grants, he has produced a study, perhaps unique in its kind, and this, in my opinion, lies in the theoretical and cultural border common to Drawing and Design, meant as the ability to represent the real and the virtual aspects of the cultural heritage simultaneously to interpret its future. With particular attention to the study of the forms as layers of artefacts, and of the use of the spaces seen also from an anthropological point of view, Culatti has in fact advanced design assumptions regarding the religious complex of the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, by emphasizing its relationship with the needs and behaviours of its heterogeneous users, in view of the development process of the area. Well, if young people who follow the disciplinary tradition knew how to undertake new paths of knowledge with renewed commitment, as this by Culatti, even the Teachers could not but be pleased of having addressed the discipline beyond itself to arrive at truer syntheses that respond to the needs of a society which, having often lost the straight path, must be reported to the fundamentals of our being. Since we are custodians of an extraordinary past, we all have the duty to deliver it intact, and if possible also improved, to those who will come after us and will judge us for this. This is an ethical issue of which we should all be fully aware. There is no doubt that this work goes exactly in this direction.

The favourable reception of this extensive work also by the Religious Community, careful guardian of these places that are sacred to more religions, is the best remedy not to let it fall on deaf ears. It represents a positive example of how to achieve ambitious and unexpected goals, and at the same time to give more content to the disciplines that rightfully belong to the humanity’s universal culture. This is because we can never forget that the design, e.g. the representation, as well as the communication itself, is the mirror of the soul; moreover, the world is geometry while its interpretation is mathematics and they communicate each other a way of being, being inseparable. Transversality, therefore, as domination of the complexity, and the Man is always beyond perception itself. The perfect interpreter of this is the Cultural Anthropology. Once again we detect the centrality of Project and Design in terms of representation and communication, aimed at enhancing the architecture of the man for the man, yesterday as today and today as tomorrow.

Enzo Siviero (CUN - National University Council)

Index

1.    Introduction

2.    Approach to the enhancement process: methodological considerations

by Michele Culatti

3.    Historical and geographical frame work

by Viviana Martini

3.1.    Nazareth: general overview

3.2.    Cartography and iconography

3.3.    The archaeological excavations

3.4.    The quarter under examination

4.    Descriptive analysis and evaluation of the components of the quarter

by Michele Culatti, Viviana Martini, Alessandro Stocco

4.1.    The system of paths

4.1.1.     The 6021 axis - Paul VI Road

4.1.2.     6092 axis - The Street of the Annunciation

4.1.3.     6089 axis - The Pilgrim Street (or Itinerary)

4.1.4.     6053 axis

4.1.5.     Transversal crossings

4.1.5.1.    6077 crossing and its pedestrian continuation

4.1.5.2.    6027 crossing

4.1.5.3.    6056 crossing

4.1.5.4.    6090 crossing

4.1.5.5.    6091 crossing

4.1.5.6.    6101 crossing

4.1.5.7.    The stairways

4.2.    The Fountain of Mary system

4.2.1.    The Fountain of Mary

4.2.2.    The thermal complex

4.2.3.    The Caravanserai

4.3.    The church complex

4.3.1.     The church

4.3.1.1.    New iconographic observations

(by Marta Boscolo)

4.3.1.2.    Composition and drawings

(by Laura Astegno)

4.3.1.3.    Current state of conservation

(by Maurizio Merlo)

4.3.2.     The Condolences

4.3.3.     The sports centre/The seat of the Greek-Orthodox community/The museum

4.3.4.     Archeological excavations

4.3.5.     The open courtyard

4.3.6.     The square

4.3.7.     The fence with its doorway

4.4.    The Bishop’s house complex

4.4.1.     The ancient caves

4.4.2.     The Bishop’s square

4.5.    The water cycle

5.    The quarter: a brief outline

5.1.    Qualification of the sites

by Michele Culatti

6.    Between conservation and development: project indications

by Michele Culatti, Viviana Martini, Alessandro Stocco

6.1.    Preliminary considerations about the district qualities

6.2.    The new visibility of the Pilgrim’s Itinerary

6.2.1.     Mobility - 1

6.2.2.     Widespread degradation - 2

6.2.3.     The names of the places - 3

6.2.4.     The marking of the pavement - 4

6.2.5.     The Fountain of Mary - 5

6.2.6.     From the Fountain of Mary, to the Baths and to the Pilgrim’s Street - 6

6.2.7.     The infopoint - 7

6.2.8.     The square and its volume balance - 8

6.2.9.     Anthropological study of the portal and of the fence - 9

6.2.10.   The Condolences: exterior aspect - 10

6.2.11.   The sports centre volume: exterior aspect - 11

6.2.12.   The museum expansion and the documentation centre - 12

6.2.13.   The permanent restoration laboratory - 13

6.2.14.   Continuation of the excavations plan - 14

6.2.15.   Plan for the accessibility to the excavations - 15

6.2.16.   The church courtyard - 16

6.2.17.   The garden behind the church - 17

6.2.18.   The water cycle - 18

6.2.19.   The church and its restoration

(by Maurizio Merlo, Laura Astegno)

6.2.19.1.    Wall intervention proposal - 19

6.2.19.2.    Intervention proposal on plasters and decoration - 20

6.2.19.3.    Intervention proposal for the wooden parts - 21

6.2.19.4.    Modern technological systems and elements - 22

6.2.20.   The hollow triangular space - 23

6.2.21.   The Bishop’s house architectural volume - 24

6.2.22.   The entrance doorways to the quarter - 25

6.2.23.   The stairways and crossing: the views - 26

6.2.24.   The Bishop’s house - 27

6.2.25.   The Bishop’s square - 28

6.2.26.   The cultural centre of the Bishop’s square - 29

6.2.27.   Communication - 30

6.2.28.   Secondary projects - 31

6.2.29.   Management and monitoring - 32

6.3.    Synthetic cards

6.4.    Project map: cloud levels

6.5.    Project map: urgency between conservation and innovation

7.    Conclusions

8.    Bibliography and Internet sources

Preface

The vulnerability of a complex of buildings that contains historical elements of great value but is not controlled in the way it is used can not only increase the risk of losing the asset itself, but also reduce the possibility of receiving citizens and visitors.

The main conditions that can limit a use of that asset compatible with the potentiality of a place are actually: its state of degradation, the flux of tourists that do not know the place, and the presence of a cultural heritage that is not accessible.

That is the case of the Orthodox church of the Annunciation in Nazareth, so that the Greek-Orthodox community decided to commission this study to the Istituto Veneto per i Beni Culturali.

The present study is a general report that aims firstly to underline the main conservation problems of a complex that must be considered heritage for the humankind. Secondly, it aims to provide all those indications that can be helpful to begin a compatible transformation of the complex, taking into consideration its double use, both for the everyday life of the community themselves and for the visitors.

The goal and the approach of this project are based on the concept of enhancement, so as it has been recognized by the present Italian law and by some relevant international observations. On this basis, we have considered the complex in its recognizable urban elements and in all its evident historical meanings, in order to arrange a masterly frame of reference, a beginning for all following value judgments.

To reduce the vulnerability of the complex - on one hand decreasing its fragility, and the other hand limiting the risk of losing it, and also by considering its non-usable parts - is the strategically runnable way to re-qualify and enhance the area analyzed in this study.

This work nevertheless constitutes a first exploring act and it does not deplete all issues, which might be object of further examination. Moreover it is meant to outline a general framework, which can be integrated with supplementary research.

1. Introduction

The goal of this study is to advance a plan to enhance a portion of the Greek-Orthodox quarter in Nazareth.

This area, which will be opportunely described in the following chapters, has a double function at the moment: on one hand it is the seat of the socio-economical everyday activities of the locals, on the other hand it constitutes a touristy attraction because of the presence of the Orthodox church of the Annunciation. Both its uses are resources that must be caught in their potentialities of generating methods of development.

These two functions, local and touristy, though perfectly superimposable and not conflicting, at the moment cannot let us read in a coherent way the complete meaning of the values that are present in the area.

As a matter of fact, the portion of the quarter that we are considering is composed of some elements that for their religious, symbolical and functional nature are widely recognizable. Some other elements, on the contrary, are very little or even not perceivable, even though provided of equally important meanings. Here, unexplored zones coexist with components of value and degradation, which are not homogeneous in their configuration and characterization. The lack of a global plan of re-qualification and enhancement limits knowledge, perception and access.

In such a precious, though not lacking of contradictions, social and cultural contest, enhancement cannot be set up through fragmentary or sporadic interventions, but has necessarily to be outlined as a process: a succession of phases that on one hand allow an analytical control and a hierarchy of every single intervention, and on the other hand permits to draw a unitary sketch on which to identify coherent projects.

From the theoretical point of view, the project defines two fundamental principles that give birth to the process of enhancement. The first is the identification of the object to enhance, which is composed, as we will see, of its tangible-perceivable, tangible-unperceivable and intangible values; the second is the generation of specific project actions, inspired by ruled and shared principles belonging to the Italian culture.

In this sense, it is necessary to examine the quarter both as a re-cognizable identity unit which is related with other urban systems, and as a system with its own inner relations. These examinations, as we will see, once brought back to the global analysis, can provide a framework which constitutes also a work-desk where to make all the choices based on the principle of enhancement. On this base, we will start the recovery of the deteriorated parts of the quarter, the organization of those functions that are compatible with the identity of the quarter, the creation of the conditions to arise the hidden values, the activation of facts aimed at the knowledge and communication of the cultural heritage not only locally but also internationally. This study, therefore, wonders about the multi-dimensionality (stratification of meanings) that composes the geometry of the quarter, seat of human relations, and our representation of it seeks to synthetize its identity value on the basis of an enhancement process.

From the methodological point of view, the work requires six different phases. The first two phases concern the application of some theoretical principles to the case, so both define the concept of enhancement as a guideline to observe the portion of the area under investigation, and the modalities of factorization of the cultural heritage (which will be distinct in simple units as paths, squares, buildings and monuments) so as to make it observable.

Then, in the third phase, we will advance to describe the cultural heritage in its smaller units, through a perceptive reading aiming at the understanding of how it is caught by the community and at the detection of the sense of the places. A further step, the fourth one, the evaluative one, allows to detect: the state of conservation of the sites in their relationship between quality and degradation; the level of knowledge of the parts of the district, which are distinct in locally-, nationally-, and globally-known areas and unknown ones; and in the end, the levels of use. To detect the levels of use of the different parts of the quarter means, for this case: to quantify the levels of visibility, that is to look at how much of a particular part of the district can be seen; how much is readable, so how it can be recognized as distinct from another one; and in conclusion, how accessible it is. Thus, once described and evaluated the various units of the quarter that is of cultural heritage, we will proceed to the fifth step of constructing a synthesis framework by mapping the distribution and concentration of qualities, of degradations, of knowledge, and of use. This step allows to identify the characteristics, potentials and specificities of the different places and permits to go on with the last phases of comparing the condition of the sites with the urban quality requirements, so to define some project guidelines that are coherent with the meaning of the places. This last step, coherently with the principles of enhancement, outlines project actions, some of which are addressed to the pure preservation practicable with restoration works, others are addressed to the emergence of the non-accessible or unknown areas, others to the focus on urban regeneration, also with the definition of architectural volumes.

The complexity of the urban system, the coexistence of tangible and intangible values, the role of the Orthodox Church at local, national and global levels imposes the provision of analytical and evaluative instruments, which on one hand try to represent a physical reality, and on the other hand seek to relate the image of the quarter as a place of relationships with the potential that can be expressed through enhancement interventions.

Nonetheless it should be noted that the site under investigation, while maintaining its historic identity consolidated over millennia, has undergone numerous transformations that have layered over the centuries. Some historical evidence still encloses many questions and the lack of information also about the recent history of the city of Nazareth, never documented in an organic and systematic way, has made the finding of sources problematic. Therefore, the methodological approach identified for this work involves the recognition of the values of places through iconographic and bibliographic sources – that though significant can contain scarce information-, through perceptual research, through graphic reliefs and through oral accounts.

These measurements, although extended to the portion of the district in analysis, focus with specific insights on the church (through a graphic survey and the analysis of its state of conservation). So far, with the instruments that are reported in normative references, and in psychological, urban, anthropological and landscape literature it has been possible to outline a framework of the heritage present in the places in which to carry out acts of enhancement.

To enhance could mean changing an urban structure, a relational organization, a system of images and of already fixed references. However, the founding idea is to bring about transformations that can be well-suited with the urban context, without creating any alterations, and without creating any other, so to reduce the risk of transforming the identity of the place.

In brief, in this study, if the main aim is to enhance the portion of the district of the Orthodox church of the Annunciation, highlighting enhancement as a process allows also to create frames of reference that are useful to generate virtuous transformation procedures, compatible with local resources.

2. Approach to the enhancement process: methodological considerations

by Michele Culatti

In order to enhance this portion of quarter we have structured a methodological approach, which will be further specified in Enclosure 1. Our method implicates the following steps.

A: The identification of the pursued objective: the concept of enhancement

Before implementing any project action, it is necessary to clarify the direction that has to be taken in the process of urban transformation. This study is centered on the principle of enhancement of the district portion of the Orthodox church of the Annunciation; therefore it is essential to understand the meaning of the enhancement process here. In this sense, we decided to use an important reference from the Italian law, the Code of Cultural Heritage¹, which is connected in many ways to other internationally recognized documents and concepts.

The above-mentioned Code, in the 6th