Moorish Pavilion: preservation challenges

Abstract The challenges facing the team from the Department of Historical Heritage at Casa de Oswaldo Cruz in the preservation of its main building, the Moorish Pavilion, are discussed. The main weaknesses of the building and the collections of artifacts it contains are presented, and the gradual change in approach adopted by the department – from ad hoc restoration interventions to the setting of broad strategies for its preventive conservation – is discussed. To this end, a brief overview is given of the main work done on the building in the last thirty years and the ongoing conservation actions undertaken, including the methodology adopted for the design of the Preventive Conservation Plan of the building, its integrated heritage, and its collections of artifacts.