Heritage and Reconstruction: Different Perspectives

Heritage is the physical expression of the cultural identity of local communities and in most cases it is a key factor supporting the development of the local economy. Due to its own nature, heritage is a non-renewable patrimony to protect for the future generations. The purpose of this paper is to describe reconstruction issues for urban conservation in historic cities, which have been led to destruction by accident, because of flooding, earthquakes, storm, fires, and also war, pointing out the association between conservation and development. In so doing, the paper will focus on the case study of a city listed in the World Heritage List, Kathmandu. A further matter concerns the controversial approach of reconstruction: while restoration aims to bring a monument back to its original state or preserve from further damage, reconstruction instead is accomplished on buildings that are destroyed or constituted of just limited ruins, sometimes even requiring the construction of a new building. After the Second World War the patrimony of the European historic cities was severely damaged, making the population aware of their loss of cultural and national identity and opening the international debate on the proper techniques and theories that should be applied. When it comes to historical cities, rather than a single monument, it does not involve just the physical appearance and the historical value but might allow to reinstate the socio-economic condition and the cultural identity of a place after a period of decline.