Discover Romanesque: Peoples and Legends

Giuseppe Pardini

Giuseppe Pardini (Lucca, 1799-1884) was one of the chief architects from Lucca in the 19th century. After completing his studies in Rome, at the Accademia di San Luca, he carried out his activity mainly at the service of his birthplace, where he was appointed ‘Consultore e ispettore di tutte le fabbriche pubbliche’, in 1837. He designed lots of buildings either in town and in the related territory (including Lucca Railway Station, 1841-1847); he also supervised the majority of architectural restoration works performed in the decades around the mid-century, operating in these contexts according to the theories of ‘interpretative restoration’. In this way, building were taken back to their supposed medieval original appearance, by removing later phases and recovering the older structures, often entirely reconstructed, even with the addition of sculptural decoration performed ex-novo (on the façade of the church of San Michele in Foro, Lucca, for instance, Pardini inserted some protomes in medieval style, actually portraying 19th-century historic characters).
In 1864, Pardini restored the Badia S. Pietro of Camaiore; the architect was also appointed as a judge in a competition for the restoration of the Pieve di Camaiore, later carried out by the architect Francesco Bianchi.