News 2007 Worksites Medieval Values Discovered at the Assumption Church, Cepari Village, Arges, Romania (1752) by Mihail Gabriel Birhala   The conservation works of the mural paintings from the church of Cepari Village brought to light the existence of a valuable ensemble of Romanian medieval paintings from 1752. The discovered frescoes were entirely covered by oil paintings executed between 1889 and 1890. Unexpected evidences of older painting beneath the new one were found during the preliminary research performed for the submission of the conservation project.

Documentation Documentation for Architecture Conservation: La Villetta Cemetery in Parma, Italy a project coordinated by Michela Rossi Formal References in Funerary Architecture by Maria Carmen Nuzzo   With the advent of the consumer society and the standardisation of life, the city of the living has created homogeneous neighbourhoods of dormitories and globalised malls and the city of the dead has been filled with crowded burial chambers in anonymous and “normalized” structures. The modern culture has created the “not places”, which means spaces lacking identity, non relational and with no history. The Urban Planning of Parma Cemeterial System by Silvia Ombellini The cemetery is “another city”. Its foundation and its increase are similar to the urban one. The cemeterial system, which in Parma was born in the last half of 19th century, presents various analogies with the urban system. Cemeteries are orientated according to the roman centuriation. They are characterised by the presence of the external wall, in analogy to the urban wall, and by the symbolism of the centre. Since the Second World War, the plot of the cemetery has become untidy, chaotic and anonymous, like that of the city. The city of the dead has spread out, and its limit has come nearer the living city. The Master Plan for the Safeguarding and Restoration of La Villetta by Elisa Adorni The Master Plan for the safeguarding and the restoration (afterward called PPO) of the Villetta’s monumental Octagon is part of a larger intervention of the cemetery planning system in Parma. The PPO is the completion of the Cemetery Rules recently adopted. The development of a specific rule, with the individualisation of the historical centre of the urban cemetery, has allowed the evaluation of the historical -architectural heritage of the monumental cemetery. The Virtual Museum - The Memory of the Cemetery Heritage by Simone Riccardi The idea of a Virtual Museum comes from the need to control and to distribute a complex data system. The research about the Villetta cemetery developed by the University and Municipality of Parma - has generated a great deal of historical, social, artistic and iconographic information. The main goal of the virtual museum is to organize this information through routes of knowledge and tools of research.

Book Review Lost City, Resumed Architectures a book by Michela Rossi, reviewed by Federica Ottoni   There are many ways to enter into a cemetery. We could inquire it by reading stories of ancient poets, looking at old paintings on its surrounding walls, or searching for old documents about its foundation. Alternatively, we could walk all around the city, through fields drawn by channels and trees, trying to detect a network of buried structures. There, a system of cemeteries seems to be created for an unexpected escape. Probably from life.

Book Review LACONA VI Proceedings (Laser in the Conservations of Artworks) reviewed by Rui Bordalo   The conservation works of the mural paintings from the church of Cepari Village brought to light the existence of a valuable ensemble of Romanian medieval paintings from 1752. The discovered frescoes were entirely covered by oil paintings executed between 1889 and 1890. Unexpected evidences of older painting beneath the new one were found during the preliminary research performed for the submission of the conservation project.

News Events Review Lecture on Preventive Conservation of Contemporary Art 30 November 2007, Sintra, Portugal e-conservationline Organiser: The Leal da Câmara Museum The Leal da Câmara Museum is a small institution dedicated to the life and work of the Portuguese master Leal da Câmara. Among several artistic activities, the museum promotes regular talks on several subjects including museology and conservation. On this context, on November 30th Nuno Moreira, conservator and adviser of the Portuguese Museum Network, gave a talk on Preventive Conservation of Contemporary Art.