Works and Initiatives
Works and Initiatives
To provide new infrastructure to Italy, on the occasion of the great celebrations in 2011 the Council of Ministers has prepared an important plan of public works of national interest.
The projects – which have been identified by the Technical Unit of Mission, in accordance with the Local Authorities and co-funded by the State, the Regions, the Provinces and the Municipalities – will serve to promote the Italian territories, culture and tourism.
The plan involves nine cities throughout the Italian territory and nine outstanding infrustructural projects: the New Cinema Palace of Venice, the New Auditorium of Florence, the Perugia airport expansion, the Parco Dora in Torino, the restoration of the Broletto in Novara, the completion of Parco del Ponente Ligure of Imperia, the restoration of the National Museum of Reggio Calabria, the New Auditorium of Isernia, the restoration of Teatro San Carlo in Naples.
The works have all started and will be completed by 2011.
Info on the Italian Government website
As far as the celebrations taking place in 2011 are concerned, a meaningful agenda of initiatives throughout the national territory has been planned. All these initiatives have a common intention: to spread and to witness a message of national identity and unity that will distinguish the celebrations.
The national celebrations focus on a number of projects resulting from the programme as it has been defined by the Minister for Cultural Heritage and Activities in accordance with the Committe of Guarantors. Among these projects, the “Memory Places” stands out. It will involve the entire country and it aims to promote places and routes of great symbolic value for the Italian history, from the Risorgimento to the national unity.
Furthermore, the national 2011 programme includes the initiatives, planned in all the Italian regions, that have been selected by the Unit of Mission with a call for bids in June 2008. The numerous cultural, artistic, scientific, information and sport projects, submitted by the local authorities and agencies, have been closely and preliminarily investigated and agreed upon in a joint work with the Municipalities and the regions involved. The projects, that will get final approval, are going to form a very rich and varied calendar that will involve the whole country and last all year long.
PIEDMONT IN THE NATIONAL PROGRAMME
Torino and Piedmont play an meaningful role in the programme of national celebrations. On the regional territory two work sites, which are part of the national public works plan, have been initiated (one for the restoration of the Broletto in Novara and one concerning the realization of the new Parco Dora in Torino). The two projects have required a 80-million euros overall investment and have been co-funded by the Italian Government and the local autohorities.
Piedmont significantly participates in the national cultural programme with important events and initiatives organised by Comitato Italia 150.
Parco Dora
The new park will be realized along the river Dora, where there were factories and workshops until a few decades ago. The area where the park will stand, the so-called Spina Tre (“spina” is the name given to deserted industrial areas along the railway tracks in Torino), underwent a strong requlification intervention in the last few years, one of the most important interventions of the great metamorphosis that has changed Torino’s features in the last twenty years , turning it from an industrial city to a city of innovation and passion, a new destination for tourism, training programmes and investiments.
The Spina Tre is north of the historical city centre and is crossed by the river Dora Riparia and the Torino-Milan railways. It was one of the largest industrial areas of the city where, in the course of three centuries, dozens of factories settled because of the close-by river, an inexhaustible energy source. This district was always experienced as an autonomous industrial citadel, despite its proximity to the city centre. In 1990 the factories closed down and were pulled down soon after, leaving room to new residential buildings, productive activities, shopping areas and services for the citizens.
The reconvension of this district will be completed in 2011 when a new vast green area crossed by the river will be inaugurated: the Parco Dora. The project was initiated in 1998 and is based on the conviction that one should not break the bridges with the past. The park is going to be a post-industrial green area and will maintain the memory of the historical factories that used to be here: Michelin that manufactured tires; Savigliano, an electromechanical enterprise; Paracchi, a fabric manufacturer, and Teksid, that is Fiat foundry. The memory will stay alive by recovering the industrial strucures (the evaporator tower at Michelin’s, the pillars and tanks of the steel plant), the materials (the cement and steel of the warehouse pillars) and the routes (hanging walkways where the conveyer belts carried the steel from the blast furnaces to the rolling-mills). The core of the new park will be the river, which today is quite degraded because of industrial exploitation. The river will be recovered and given back to the citizens, thus becoming an ideal place for doing sport and relaxing.
The realization of the park is occurring by lots, as it involves areas that are separated by the river, roads and differences in level today. At the end of the works all the sections of the park will be connected with bridges, walkways and ramps, thus forming one single green 45-hectare path.
The project on the Government website
The Broletto
The Broletto was founded in the 13th century as the seat of the city public institutions in the free municipality of Novara. It is a complex building formed of four constructions of different eras overlooking a closed courtyard: the thirteenth-century Palazzo dell’Arengo that housed the town meetings; the fifteenth-century Palazzo del Podestà; the Palazzo dei Referendari and the Palazzo dei Parartici, the seat of the arts and crafts guilds.
Currently the Broletto can be visited only in part: the courtyard is used as a pedestrian area and as a venue for outdoor event, whereas the buildings house the archeological museum and the city Picture Gallery displaying the Adele and Paolo Giannoni Collection. According to the restoration and rearrangement project – concerning the Palazzo dei Paratici, the Palazzo del Podestà and part of the Palazzo dei Referendari –the entire building will house only the Giannoni collection, and the archeological museum will be moved into Novara Castle. The museum sections will be placed on the first floor of the entire building and on the ground floor of the Palazzo dei Referendari, whereas the ground floor of the Palazzo dei Paratici will become the venue for temporary exhibitions and educational workshops.
This intervention will finally make the remarkable art heritage of the town available to the public in 2011. Such a heritage has not yet been fully appreciated because of lack of appropriate exhibit venues: over 900 Italian artworks from the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries from almost all regional school, including artists from Piedmont, Lombardy, Tuscany, Veneto and Campania.
