The Venice Charter was held on the 25 to 31 May 1964 in Italy.

The commitee comprised largely of

Europeans but also representatives from Mexico,Peru and Tunisia drafted this charter. Their main
aim was protection and conservation of important historical monuments and site. The legal
frameworke was for both national and international level.The Charter establish and defines the
nature of historic monuments and provides guiding princeples on how they should be cared for and
managed. The commitee was successful.however after 1964 the Charter was challenged by many
scholars arguing that it contain nothing new and even that the concepts expressed in it were
contradictory.the charter left out one of the major impotant issue of community participation in
concervation of historical monuments and sites.

The Venice Chater establish and defines the nature of historic monuments and provide guiding
princeples on how they should be cared for and managed (Grieve 2005). they discussed about
cultural value of great works of architecture and art are taken for granted.Their value is constructed
here as part ot what Fairclough identifies as common groung of shared or taken for granted
meanings that underpin a sence of fellowship of concern over the preservation and concervation of
the past. The idea here was to mark common grounds princeples and beliefs (Fairclough 2003:55)

The Charter cordifies international accepted standards of concervation practice relating to

architecture and site. It sets forth princeples of concervation based on the concept of authenticity
and the importance of maintaining the historical and physicsl context of a site or building. The
Charter continues to be the most influential international concervation document.The Venice
Charter states that monuments are to be concerved not only as works of art but also as historical
evidence. It also sets down the princeple of preservation which relate to restoration of buiding with
works from different periods.The main purpose was to safefegard cultural heritage for future
generation. (Smith, L 2006)

In addition it also requires that original construction materials must be used in any restoration. New
materials can only be introduced, provided that they are the same as the original materials they are
replacing.(Chikwanda 2006)In keeping with those international standards ot the best practices,
restoratin of the Khami were precess. The concervation of Great Zimbabwe and Khami as world
heritage heritage sites has followed more the princeples of the Venice Charter.(Sinamai 2014)

The idea of inherant value of fabric of a monument is embedded in the gideline the charter gives to
concervation and restoration purposes. Article 7 of the Venice Charter notes that the monuments
should be used for socially useful purposes but that any use must not change the layout or
decoration of the building. This is not because unity of stye should be preserved. The idea of
safeguaiding and the phrase ‘no less’ trigger the assamption that works of art and historic evidence
are the values most desined about monuments and that is their aestatic and historical qualities that
are fandamental important. The Charter makes these values appear as unquestioned common sence
and as such the charter is doing important ideological work in legitimasing and universilizing these
values (Smith, L 2006).

Hoever the Venice Charter has some weaknessis. In 1977, in an asssessment of the charter Cevat
Erder (Turkey) identifies some of its defects pointing out that, as it was written mainly by
Europeans there could be difficulties in its application in all cultures. Erder maintained,
nevertheless, that the charter had performed its task,that it was worthy of respect due to an historic
document amd should be preserved according to princeples proposed for the preservation of an
historic monuments (ICOMOS 1994)

UNESCO (1972) suddested that there was change in social and economic conditions that
threatened the distiruction of cultural sites and that the deterioration or loss of items of cultural and
natural heritage constitutes a harmful impoverishment of the heritage of all the nation of the world.
Moreso, the Venice Charter left out the idea of community participation. The Burra Charter of 1979
involve people in the dicision making process, particular those that have strong association with a
place. The Burra Charter wanted the groups and individuals with association with a place as well as
those involved in its management should be provided with opportinities to contribute to and
participate in understanding the culture significant of the place. The main idea here is that those
people should be also included in the preservation of historical monuments. (Waterton et al. 2006)

in conclusion the Venice Charter was succesful because it provide legal framework and guideline
for preservation and conservation of important historical monuments and sites though it left out
some important facts which should be also considerd in the preservation of historic monuments.

REFERANCE LIST

Chirikure, S, Mukwende , T and Taruvinga P (2015). Post- colonial heritage concervation in Africa:
Pespectivees from drystone wall restoration at Khami World Heritage site, Zimbabwe, International
journal of Heritage studies.

Erder, C. The Venice Charter under review. In : ICOMOS Science journal, The Venice Charter
1964-1994 :24-31

ICOMOS Scientific Journal, The Venice charter – la charte de Venice 1964-1994, Paris (1994)

Smith, L 2006. Uses of heritage :New York: Routledge