However, permanences in the city are not only "pathological." At times they may be "propelling." They serve to bring the past into the present, providing a past that can stilI be experienced. Artifacts like the Theater at Arles or the Palazzo della Ragione in Padua tend to synchronize with the process of urbanization because they are not defined only by an originaI or previous function, nor by their context, but have survived precisely because of their form-one which is able to accommodate different functions over time.