LAS CUBIERTAS DE HIERRO DE LA PALERMO LIBERTY - THE IRON ROOFS IN PALERMO’S LIBERTY

Abstract

The iron architecture spreads in Europe in the nineteenth century, coinciding with the advancement of the steel industry and the development of the extraordinary Art Nouveau period, a movement that analyses the evolution of the modern world, the industrial development, the advances in technology, the new social and cultural needs, to find a new suitable form to meet the new demands of representativeness. In this atmosphere of urban renewal, modern technology plays a primary role, and iron is well-suited to adapt to the new demands of taste that draw inspiration from nature and its organic forms. Many of the iron works of the period have disappeared, destroyed or demolished and others are in a total status of abandon and decay. The contribution is the result of a study carried out at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo, aimed to highlight those works of iron architecture made in Palermo at the turn of the century, with particular attention to the roofs which have suffered through the years the action of weather and, the consequences of neglect and superficiality regard these works and their role of historical, artistic and cultural evidence of the extraordinary Art Nouveau season in Sicily.