‘What in January 1998 appeared to be a rash promise has today become a definite certainty: the Christmas mass of the year of Christ 1999 will be celebrated in the Upper church of Assisi, again opened to worshippers. Those who enter the church devastated by the earthquake will see the ceilings repaired, exactly as and where they were before, the altar reconstructed, the wall paintings so seriously damaged by the earthquake restored metre after metre and again ready for public admiration. Of course, those who look up will see the gothic vaults interrupted, near the counter-facade and transept, by large empty spaces because to put back together the frescos which fell off and broke into thousands of little pieces will take time, many years perhaps. One unexpected aspect of the Assisi worksite is that it has become a showcase of know-how and techniques, an experimental laboratory open to the international scientific community as a whole. Meetings have increased with specialists from many spheres and different areas of the world, new and innovative materials have been tested, scientists and engineers, from Italy and abroad have visited the worksite, offering their advice and experience. It is in the historical and cultural importance of this restoration work that the sense of the exhibition staged at the Meeting must be viewed a photographic iter that illustrates the reconstruction both architectural and pictorial of one of Italy’s major Basilicas. Visitors can thus journey through these restoration works and find themselves inside what many have called the ‘utopian worksite’.’