Capturing the spirit of the place. A special conservation for intangible heritage

"Reuse and associated risk". As discussed during the EAAE workshop, the reuse of religious structures is becoming an urgent problem, especially in situations where a large number of buildings were devoted to religious use in the past and now have to cope with a drastic reduction in religious practice. In the case of S. Maria Addolorata Church, there is an additional problem in that the church is a part of a psychiatric hospital, closed under the Basaglia law, and now looking for a new use. S. Maria Addolorata was built in 1928 as the church of the Cogoleto psychiatric hospital, which was established to accommodate 3.000 patients. The neo-Gothic design adopted new sstrustural solutions that were very innovative for the time. The internal organisation is very special: the upper section is divided into three aisles, with a series of hanging arches without columns below, while a unique open space is created at ground level. This arrangement was intended to give a better visualcontrol of patients who attend religious services, avoiding the obstructions the columns could introduce. As soon as the construction was completed, the hospital directorate asked Gino Grimaldi, patient and painter, to decorate the church walls.This is among the first instances of art therapy in Italy. The high artistic value of these paintings was recognised in 1992 by the superintending authority. When in 1990s the Basaglia law closed Italian psychiatric hospitals, this area was abandoned. The abandonment has led to various conservation problems, both in the church structure and in the paintings. The text consist of a series of reflections stimulated by observations from a range of professionals, not necessarily related to conservation, but which cast light on the complex issues of conservation and intangibile heritage