Le patrimoine martyr et la résurrection des Monuments Historiques en Europe après 1945

International audienceRestoration of historical monuments after 1945 is based on the acceptance or the rejection of the drama of loss. I identified three major periods of restoration in Europe after WWII : 1945-1972 ; 1973-1989 ; 1990-2015. In France, as opposed to Germany or Italy, historiography in architecture still does not deal much with the history of restoration post-bellica, ie with historical monuments destroyed during WWII and progressively restored afterwards. The historiographical task at hand is to study within different contexts (Germany, France, ltaly, ex-Yugoslavia, etc) the practices of restoration once peace is back. Although ferments of restoration (for both works of art and architecture) can be identified, in the current sense of the term, as early as the 1930’s, the discipline is going to mature under the impetus of the immense workshop of post-bellica restoration. Methods, techniques and theories, still valid today, are then produced and applied. My suggestion is that such a workshop can be considered as an European lab within which a kind of «invisible college» is at work, centered around a few major international experts. Architects, historians of art, superintendents, archeologists, natural and social scientists share their experiences and points of view. Research laboratories, universities, museums, churches, international organizations are involved from all over Europe. But Italy is at the heart of the «invisible college»