THE VIEWS OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM WARSAW ABOUT HISTORICAL MONUMENTS: ARE CONSERVATION THEORIES CONCURRENT WITH SOCIAL EXPECTATIONS?

Finding out about social opinions pertaining to the need for the existence of historical monuments, their value for society, and socially accepted ways of proceeding with such monuments, is of crucial significance for all sorts of programmes dealing with the protection and conservation of historical monuments. If conservation undertakings, based on the opinions of experts and doctrinal principles, are to be remain at odds with social expectations then their effectiveness will be minimal. The process of becoming familiar with views expressed by society should become a point of departure for planning suitable conservation ventures. A poll conducted in 2005 in 17 comprehensive schools in Warsaw became a step towards learning about the knowledge and opinions of Polish youth about historical monuments and the needs and ways of their protection and use. The polls encompassed a total of 1 198 persons in three age groups. Among such questions as the definition of a monument, examples of monuments in the closest environ, Poland, Europe and the world, the need for the protection of historical monuments, the readiness to become involved in activity focused on such protection, etc., the presented article discusses problems reflecting an essential and highly disturbing divergence between the views accepted by the theoreticians of the protection and conservation of historical monuments, on the one hand, and the opinions voiced by the secondary schools students from the Polish capital, on the other hand. These issues concern the nature of historical monuments, the purposes that they should serve, whether they should be used for contemporary purposes, and the limits of the authenticity of a monument, not to be crossed in the course of conservation. Pertinent questions were intentionally formulated in such a way as to test whether the young respondents accept the opinions of contemporary theoreticians of conservation and studies dealing with historical monuments. The overwhelming majority of the respondents supports a vision of historical monuments as isolated, well-guarded objects, serving predominantly tourists, and without the introduction of contemporary economic functions. The answers also suggest a total divergence of the opinions of society and experts as regards suitable methods of conserving seriously damaged monuments. A large part of the respondents (58,88%) spoke in favour of a full and faithful reconstruction resorting to contemporary techniques and accessible material. The second largest group of respondents supports the preservation of “permanent ruins“ (31,95%), and only a small group (7,39%) approved of operations which today numerous theoreticians of conservation regard as most appropriate, i. e. a symbolic preservation of a monument in the form of a historical reference within contemporary architecture (so-called retroversion)