With this email we ask you to appeal to the Superintendent of Florence Andrea Pessina, who is working for the survival of an icon of international twentieth century architecture: the Artemio Franchi Stadium (former Giovanni Berta Stadium) in Florence.
As well known, this work, created by Pier Luigi Nervi between 1929 and 1932, is among the most important monuments of Italian architecture, due to its unprecedented role as structural architecture, inaugurating a new way of seeing and conceiving shapes, and of realizing them through technologies and construction methods that were cutting-edge for their time.
Nervi’s stadium is a paradigmatic work when considered in relation to many later stadiums that have re-proposed and reinterpreted its essential beauty.
Unfortunately, this admirable structure is at risk of being literally torn to pieces due on an amendment included in the Italian Simplification Decree: art. 55-bis of Legislative Decree no. 76/2020, which has nullified the effectiveness of the Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscapethat is linked to one of the most important principles of the Italian Constitution, Article 9 .
Leaving aside the specific legal issues, these changes threaten a fragmented vision of the Italian architectural heritage that can be influenced by particular interests, since the Ministry is solely entrusted with the identification of "specific structural, architectural or visual elements of which conservation or reproduction is strictly necessary for testimonial purposes, even in shapes and sizes other than the original" with "methods and forms of conservation, also detached from the new sports facility ".
There is, therefore, the possibility of large-scale interventions that lead to irreversible changes, including the complete demolition of a sports facility for economic or functional reasons despite its potential cultural interest. It is even “imagined” to be able to demolish a building already declared of cultural interest if some of its parts would be rebuilt in other places and in "different dimensions".
This violates all national and international charters and conventions. It is contrary to the very concept of protection, which Italy has always championed. In this way, fragmentation affects the rules and the works submitted to them in the same way.
Today the Franchi Stadium is in imminent danger. The Municipality of Florence is preparing to send an application in which it will ask the Ministry of Culture to identify the elements to be preserved and those to be sacrificed in the stadium—even before the Fiorentina football club presents a project. It is clear that there is a specific desire on the part of the Municipality to destroy the stadium.
What can you do?
Please urgently write a letter explaining briefly why from your point of view the Franchi Stadium deserves to be preserved in its entirety and restored as much as possible to its original splendor, as it was before the alterations introduced on the occasion of the 1990 World Cup.
The letter should be addressed to:
Andrea Pessina
Superintendent
Superintendence of Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the metropolitan city of Florence and the provinces of Pistoia and Prato
Piazza Pitti 1 - 50125 Florence
sending the letter to the following email address: andrea.pessina@beniculturali.it
and for information to Marco Nervi (marconervi@googlemail.com ) and Ugo Carughi(ugo.carughi@gmail.com ).
The Superintendent Pessina will thus be able to insert your letter in the documentation that he will be asked to present shortly to the Directorate General for Archeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of the Italian Ministry of Culture.
Thanks for your attention, we hope to read you soon.
Marco Nervi
President - Pier Luigi Nervi Project Association
Ugo Carughi
President - DO.CO.MO.MO. Italia
Lettera di appello di Archistar
FRANCHI STADIUM (former BERTA STADIUM) BY NERVI IN FLORENCE
UNDER THREAT
