Between rediscovery and restoration of the Middle Ages. The ville turrifié in the work of Georges Rohault de Fleury in Pisa

Abstract

The paper focuses on an original aspect of the work of Georges
Rohault de Fleury (1835-1904), who, from 1853 onwards, stayed
in Pisa several times and for a long time to analyse medieval
architecture and art, to which he dedicated about twenty years
of work. The centrality of the theme of the ville turrifié and the
tower-house emerge in the framework of the studies of the
Tuscan monuments and especially of Pisa, which he investigates
intending to reconstruct a city's history. In particular, the theme
of civil architecture lends itself to reconstructive hypotheses
since little seems to have remained of the original structures,
which nevertheless emerge, at some points, from the plastered
facades of the palaces, from which de Fleury elaborates
conjectures and reliefs. The tower house, for de Fleury directly
borrowed from the defensive structures, is the typology that
distinguishes the diffused urban fabric of a real tower city like
Pisa, which seems to have a remarkable reputation in building
skill.
The paper wants, therefore, to frame the work of Georges
Rohault de Fleury in the broader context of studies on the
rediscovery of the Middle Ages, concerning the close links
with the French culture (not only de Fleury, but also Verdier
and Cattois, Labruste, etc.), and the fallout on the restorationreinvention
in its long period and the different declinations.