Transsylvania Nostra Journal

The starting point of the present article is not that meeting in 1964 in Venice, at which of course I couldn’t be present, but that conference 10 years ago, organised by the ICOMOS National Committee of Hungary in Budapest-Pécs, in order to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the adoption of the Venice Charter. The organisers published the proceedings both in printed and CD-format, thus recording our views ten years ago about the Charter. Although the last ten years didn’t bring much change in this respect, this semi-centenary is an important, festive occasion, thus it is worthy to reexamine the timeliness of the Charter, namely wether it could preserve its guiding role regarding the preservation and conservation of historic buildings, in spite of changes occurred since its adoption, or even in the last ten years. Obviously the changes did not affect the Charter itself, but the context and environment we live in, and in which it is worthy and necessary to examine the timeliness and validity of this important basic document.

Keywords: historic building, Venice Charter, conservation, reconstruction, preservation, common heritage, contemporary stamps