Techniczno-biologiczna metoda zabezpieczania i ekspozycji murów trwałych ruin

A proper protection, preservation and display o f the complexes o f permanent ruins, which, as a role, are incomplete, destructed and often in the state of decay, is not an easy task. Although there is no question o f adapting them for utility purposes, still the problem of a proper display o f permanent ruins and their elements, which differ in their condition and thus it is often difficult to interpret them, gains in importance in terms o f didactic, scientific and aesthetic values. At present one can distinguish the following three main trends in the works carried out on the ruins: 1) Full or partial reconstruction o f the missing sections or parts o f fortifications 2) Petrification, conservation of the remains preserved without the introduction o f reconstructed elements 3) Conservation of defensive complexes with the partial making-up o f the substance in fragments connected with a technical structure o f the building (parts of the facing, missing parts in the walls, roofing of the turrets, etc.). It seems that a higher effectiveness of conservation treatment as well as its lower cost and speeding-up may be achieved by the examination and introduction of rather unusual, not well-known and rarely employed biological and chemical methods. The biological method would consist in selecting proper plants that would grow in upper parts o f petrified ruins that are most exposed to destruction and in this way give them a specific charm. Basing on preliminary findings it is possible to identify the main features of the plants to be used for the conservation of permanent ruins. In the first place, the following characteristics should be mentioned : — ability to overgrow self-sown plants (trees, bushes), — small overground height (10—30 cm), — ability to grow without cultivation (i.e. weeding, watering, mowing, fertilizing), — ability to form a compact and strong underground structure (rhizomes, roots)without,however,destructive tendencies (showing and growing through walls, etc.), — resistance to frost, — resistance to drought, — resistance to insolation, — ability to grow on small patches o f soil (e.g. on the area of 1 square m. and 10—20 cm wide), — resistance to wind (adhesiveness), — a relatively long period o f the annual vegetation in green (from early spring to late autumn), — long duration (best o f all if unlimited or at least for a few years), — aesthetic values (colour, form, flower), — a relatively insignificant threat to adjacent squares or cultivations with weed-growing or a disturbance in the compositional balance or economic effects, — easy to grow at different heights, — low costs o f planting and cultivating. The author discusses details of introducing such a method on selected complexes o f fortifications in the towns o f south-western Poland and brings to the fore the undertaking of works on a technical and biological method o f the preservation o f permanent ruins in the Wrocław group o f the Enterprise for the Conservation o f Art.