Alterazione e degrado dei materiali lapidei naturali

The poor outcome of numerous restorations on artefacts of historical and artistic interest, after a few years, has shown how indispensable an accurate preliminary assessment of the conservation problems of the artefact is for the purposes of the reliability of the intervention. The correct diagnosis of the causes upstream of the phenomena of alteration and degradation, whether physiological or pathological, becomes the fundamental prerequisite for choosing any conservative or restorative intervention. From this point of view, in order to provide the reader with a useful tool for investigation and recognition in the field, the text illustrates the phenomena of alteration and degradation that can affect natural stone materials used for the construction of architectural artefacts and, with with the help of a rich photographic repertoire, a useful classification is proposed to correlate the phenomena to the triggering causes. In particular, the alterations and degradations that afflict the archaeological masonry are taken into consideration, since in these structures the acting mechanisms are emphasized in particular environmental conditions.