Heritage glossary

A minimal vocabulary for reading about heritage without stumbling over the terms. The entries point, where useful, to the essays in which the concept is developed.

Architecture and urbanism

Bastioned (abaluartado) — a fortification system of low walls and angled bastions, designed to resist artillery.

Wall-walk (adarve) — the patrol path along the top of a wall.

Ashlar (cantaria) — dressed (worked) stone used in structural or decorative elements.

Pombaline cage (gaiola pombalina) — the three-dimensional timber framework that gives Pombaline buildings their seismic resistance.

Carved gilt-work (talha) — wood carving, often gilded, that clothes Baroque altarpieces and chancels.

Styles

Manueline — the late-Gothic style of the reign of King Manuel I, with nautical and naturalistic ornamentation.

Mudéjar — elements of Islamic artistic tradition used in Christian works.

Plateresque — minute Renaissance ornamentation, of Castilian origin, likened to silversmithing (“silver work”).

Conservation

Authenticity — the degree to which an asset preserves its original material, design and function.

Classification — the administrative act by which the State recognises and protects an asset.

Reversibility — the principle whereby a restoration intervention must be capable of being undone without harm to the original.

Outstanding universal value — UNESCO’s criterion that distinguishes World Heritage from heritage of national scope.

The glossary grows with the essays. Is there a term you would like to see defined? The project welcomes the suggestion.