€ 1.25 million for refurbishment of monumental colonnade Sant’Anna cemetery Triest (Italy)

Tuesday 27 March initiatives were presented for the necessary conservation, restoration and redevelopment of the Monumental Colonnade of the Santa Anna Cemetery. That cemetary is an important artistic and historical heritage of the city of Trieste, and one of its most significant examples of neoclassical art, dating back to the first half of the 18th century.

To illustrate the scope of the operation, with a total spending of around € 1.25 million, the Councilor for Public Works intervened with the director of Area Enrico Conte and executives and technicians of the Municipality of Trieste who took part in the project, the head of the Cemetery Services of AcegasApsAmga Massimo Carratù and for the Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Friuli Venezia Giulia, the art historian Claudia Crosera and the restorer Cristina Gioachin.

The project, is split in three phases. The first phase, which ended in September of last year, a first lot of € 250,000 for the coverage of fourteen of the sixty-one spans of the colonnade and the rehabilitation of part of the rainwater discharge system. The second phase of the works is currently being awarded (second lot for the amount of € 500,000) in which it is planned to complete the restoration of the roof, the replacement of skylights, as well as the rehabilitation of the rainwater disposal system, to finalize the works of the first intervention completed last year.

A third lot of final completion of the works will follow (for a further € 500,000) which will focus on the covered areas of the building, on the mortar of the arches.

To evaluate all the problems related to the tombs of which the concession had expired, a special working group has been set up, formed by the Municipality of Trieste, AcegasApsAmga and the Soprintendenza of Trieste. The general objective to be achieved is to restore dignity and value to an important historical and artistic heritage, also by articulating specific “routes” to the monumental properties of the Cemetery, thus integrating them with the cultural heritage of the city and those of other cemeteries.

Some of the planned redevelopments will be borne by the Municipality of Trieste, in particular regarding 12 tombs of the monumental colonnade, including tomb no 24, which belongs to Daniele Pietro Dutilh and his family.

For the remaining 49 tombs the maintenance costs will be borne by the heirs of the concession holder, who will be invited to start the operations necessary to prevent the degradation of the stone structures, even in order to avoid risks to the safety of people and of the monument itself.