Moving Monuments? The Temple of Debod in Madrid in a Comparison between Spain and Italy

Abstract

An Egyptian temple from the 2nd century BC coming from the Nile’s shore is located since 1970 in the very central park of la Montaña in Madrid. Following the construction of the Aswan dam, which caused the area to flood, the temple was dismantled and transported as a thanks for Spain’s work on the monuments of Nubia. In recent times, there has been discussions on the need for the material conservation of the building, thinking to protective covers. The technique of moving monuments is very old and the Debod temple is just one example of a long history. We can distinguish the displacements, when the whole building moves, from transport, in which the building is dismantled into parts and rebuilt in other places. This case is very common, at least in the past, but obviously more destructive. A more mature approach is found in the application of the methods of urban archeology. However, the preservation of the monuments of the past has always caused conflicts with the city of the present, as the Via dell’Impero, inherited from fascism, shows in Rome. Precisely this cas reveals the need for a project that manages the potential conflict between old and new. The necessary chemical-physical treatments have already been applied in the temple of Debod. But the life of a monument is not just conservation of stone or climate control. Rather, we need to grasp the significance of the monument and the relationship with history and the space in which it is located today.