Spain Under The Venice Charter

This article examines the Venice Charter’s influence on the evolution of restoration in Spain in the interesting period that bridges the gap between Francoism and the dawn of democracy. Under the organizational structure that prevailed during Francoism, the restoration of monuments in the whole state was assigned to seven specialized architects who engaged in a stylistic approach. With the subsequent dawn of democracy, the field of monument restoration opened to a large range of non-specialized architects who applied ideas of critical restoration theory. This blatant dichotomy led to a diverse interpretation of the Venice Charter that this text strives to analyze from the vantage point of its actors, starting with the work of the participants in the Second International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments and continuing with the protagonists of the discipline of restoration in this country who followed after them.