Universit� degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Fourth appointment of the cycle ‘Cultural Heritage: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’ dedicated to the Gypsums and Caves of the Apennines

The fourth appointment in the Gemma University Museum's cycle of conferences ‘Cultural Heritage: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’, which is part of the initiatives for the 850th anniversary of Unimore, will be devoted to the gypsums (evaporites) of the northern Apennines, as artistic and human heritage. The event, with free admission subject to availability, will be held on Thursday 13 February at 5.30 pm at the Complesso Sant'Eufemia (Largo Sant'Eufemia 19, Modena).

The lecture will be held by Prof. Stefano Lugli of the Unimore Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences, who will talk about the UNESCO site ‘Karst and caves in the evaporites of the northern Apennines’, consisting of chalks that represent an extraordinary geological, naturalistic and landscape heritage.

Gypsums have also been part of the artistic heritage since the Romans used the famous lapis specularis crystals instead of glass, a use that continued into the Middle Ages; then for their use as shimmering stone in the churches of Bologna and Nonantola and in the Garisenda tower in Bologna.

Prestigious examples of the use of gripping plaster are the mortars in the 15th-century vaults of Modena Cathedral, the gilded stuccoes in the Ducal Palace in Sassuolo, and the altar frontals in coloured scagliola in Carpi.

At the end of the meeting it will be possible to visit the Gemma University Museum.

Stefano Lugli is full professor of Stratigraphic and Sedimentological Geology at the Department of Chemical and Geological Sciences Unimore and coordinator of the PhD Programme Models and Methods for Materials and Environmental Sciences. He is in charge of the sedimentological, petrographic and geochemical study of evaporitic successions and associated carbonates, the compositional study of sand liquefaction phenomena induced by seismic events in various parts of the world (Italy, Croatia, Ecuador) and of geoarchaeology, geoarchitecture, provenance, characteristics and degradation phenomena of building materials (stone materials stucco, plaster, mortar) in historical buildings and necropolis from the Bronze Age onwards (including terramare in the Po River Valley, Stromboli, Mutina/Modena, Pompeii, UNESCO site in Modena, Palazzo ducale in Sassuolo, Formigine Castle, Vignola Castle, Garisenda Tower in Bologna and various sites in Sicily, Crete, Jordan). He edited the geological part of the application of the ‘Karst in the Evaporites of the Northern Apennines’ as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The conference cycle ‘Cultural Heritage: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’ is supervised by Dr. Milena Bertacchini, head of the Museo Geologico e Mineralogico Estense Gemma, which from 2022 will be part of the Unimore Museum and Botanical Garden System.

Categorie: International - english, Notizie_eng