Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda's Architecture: Constructing the Modern Restoring the Ancient. The Cathedral of Marsala

In 1892 Damiani Almeyda was invited by the major of Marsala to predispose a relation on the interventions needed for the stability of the cathedral which exhibited heavy structural damages. The crack pattern, appeared in the dome zone presumably in the early eighties of the XIX century, brought the municipality to the decision of calling a technician of great experience in the field of the structural rehabilitation. Damiani Almeyda presented his restoration proposal in the August of 1892 but, before the works could have begun, in February the second of 1893, the dome collapsed. Then Damiani Almeyda was charged of the design for the reconstruction of the dome and the reinforcement of its support structures. In this paper, besides the unknown chronicle of the damages, the collapse and the reconstruction of the dome, the magisterial technical knowledge as well as the architectural sensibility of a XIX century engineer is highlighted through the examination of the graphical and textual reports prepared by Damiani Almeyda for the Marsala's Cathedral.