Dismantling and rebuilding heritage. What does it mean in terms of memory?

This work is part of an international research with a principal aim to study and understand the processes related to heritage caused by the massive construction of dams and reservoirs during the central decades of the past century in Spain and Italy. We studied the repercussions, not only from a building restoration perspective, but also associated fields such as memory, politics, geography, sociology or anthropology- in order to manage all the"reactions" that engage the topic of collective memory. Furthermore, the study constitutes an opportunity to build new concepts with which to analyse (and design) contemporary fields of study for the improvement of strategies for the conservation of the values of villages in areas with high seismic risk or hydro-geological instability. We present different examples of transferred monuments, or parts of them that are significant in understanding the complexity of these processes. One of the main problems has always been to find a proper place to relocate the transferred monuments. Historically, there has always been conflict between the different parties involved, most often the inhabitants of the drowned villages ant the authorities. It is important to analyse the arguments of each party in order to understand the significance of these buildings in defining the memory of an entire community.