Restoration of Porta Tuderte 2023-24

Porta Tuderte (Todi Gate), also known as Porta San Giovanni, is one of the oldest city gates in San Gemini. It was built in the first half of the 13th century at the same time that Porta Burgi was built. It replaced an older gate that had become obsolete due to the expansion of the city perimeter. It cuts awkwardly through the old square that faced the Church of San Giovanni and is a key component in the restructuring of the medieval urban fabric of the town that happens in the 13th century. The gate is a layered structure that, over the past 8 centuries, has gone through several additions and transformations and is an important monument documenting the urban history of San Gemini.

In the last century, this gate has been a major access point for traffic going into the city. The consequence is that the stonework of the gate has been exposed to a concentration of corrosive exhaust fumes that has damaged both the stones and the mortar that make up the gate’s masonry, particularly in the inner tunnel.

Restoration of the stone masonry work will include, cleaning the stone, consolidating and treating “black crusts”, consolidating any cracked or loose stones, and repointing all the masonry using traditional lime mortar.

All work will be carried out by SGPS students and faculty.  The project will be done with official approval and supervision of the City of San Gemini and the Soprintendenza Archeologia, Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell'Umbria (Ministry of Cultural Heritage).

Also see Program A : Touching the Stones, Restoration and Analysis of Historic Buildings

Find out more about Porta Tuderte

Restoration of San Francesco Summer 2020

The façade of San Francesco

In 2020 a new building restoration project will started by SGPS, the restoration of the façade of the church of San Francesco in San Gemini, a 13th century Franciscan church which has been the most prominent church in town since it was built in the middleages.
The façade requires cleaning, pointing and some stonework repairs. A small mural painting of Saint Francis done in 20th century will also need some restoration work. The facade is fairly large and it will take several seasons to complete.

Also see Program A : Touching the Stones, Restoration and Analysis of Historic Buildings

Paper Restoration Project 2011

In the 2011 paper restoration workshop students worked on material from three sources: one was an 18th Century book printed in Greece; a manuscript from the Historic Archives of the City of San Gemini, and; another manuscript from the Historic Archives of the Dioceses of the City of Narni.

The printed book was the first project. This book is not a rare book, nor very valuable, however, its poor condition offered a good opportunity from a pedagogic point of view.  The book is missing its original binding, so the work concerned only the text block. The project involved the disassembly of the block and the signatures, the dry cleaning, the washing of the sheets, the drying and flattening, the patching of missing sections and borders with new material, as well as the consolidation of the paper wherever necessary. The final operation was the reassembly of the signatures. The text block will be reassembled next year, when the work on all the sheets is completed.

The  second project dealt with original material from the San Gemini Historic Archives. They were all single sheet manuscripts, mostly letters, from the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries. The work  involved the dry cleaning, consolidation and patching of the paper material. In the letters, the tears caused by the breaking of the seals were not repaired because the damage was the result of the intended use of the document.

The last project was  a manuscript report of a Pastoral visit done by Bishop Eroli of Narni to the nearby city of Otricoli in the 16th Century. The document was a libretto of several stitched sheets. It had serious damage from acidic ink that had perforated the paper causing  splits in the paper and sections to fall off. The material was disassembled, taking great care not to lose any additional material, was cleaned, de-acidified, and lined with tissue to consolidate the separated portions of the paper and reassembled with new string.

Ceramics Restoration Project 2013: Roman Burial Grave Goods

Field work done by students in 2013

Restoration of grave goods from the Roman burial found in Coranoni near Norcia

In 2013 a very interesting project was done: the restoration of a set of pottery that was part of the grave goods of a  recently discovered burial site near Norcia at a construction site. The finds were damaged accidentally by an excavation plow. These pieces were lent to the SGPS by the Archaeological Museum of Perugia for restoration.

Pottery typology analysis

The pottery diagnostic studies were part of a different exercise analyzing finds from the excavations done in Roman Carsulae and the Palatine in Rome.