Twenty places and their extraordinary stories: twenty restoration and enhancement projects

supported by FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano and Intesa Sanpaolo.

The 10th edition of the “I Luoghi del Cuore” (Italian Places I Love) survey, which was launched in May of last year while the pandemic was still raging, achieved its best-ever result with 2,353,932 votes collected. Now, for 20 of these places, FAI will provide restoration and enhancement projects, with the opportunity to write a new page of history. To support the projects, €370,000 were made available by FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano and Intesa Sanpaolo on the occasion of the survey.

The Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nice Railway, which came 1st with 75,586 votes, was awarded €55,000, with which FAI will use to produce a video story of the area, to be staged at two symbolic sites, one in Piedmont and one in Liguria, to promote the places of exceptional historical and environmental value that this train crosses and connects and that only this train – if its services are increased – can save from progressive isolation.

In third place with 43,469 votes, Brescia Castle will receive 30,000 euros to reactivate the evocative route of the Strada del Soccorso, which will be reopened to the public and enhanced by new lighting.

The Chiesa di Ignazio Gardella in Alessandria, the first work by the great rationalist architect and the most popular place in the list of Historic Places of Health with 30,391 votes, will receive 20,000 euro to make it safe by waterproofing its roof, while the fascinating Hermitage of Sant’Onofrio al Morrone in Sulmona (AQ), winner of the prize for the “Italy above 600 metres” list with 22,442 votes, is still to be defined.

On the other hand, the contribution of €45,000 for Castello di Sammezzano in Reggello (FI), in 2nd place in the national ranking with 62,690 votes, remains frozen. Its current ownership situation – at the end of 2019, it returned to the ownership of Sammezzano Castle Srl, which has emerged from bankruptcy proceedings, a company whose long-term plans, and in particular its intention to maintain public use, even partial, of the building, are not known – does not allow for funding from “I Luoghi del Cuore”.

In addition to these four, a further sixteen projects will receive the contribution made available by FAI and Intesa Sanpaolo, having been selected in the context of the call for proposals launched at the end of the 10th edition of the survey. Out of the 225 places that had received at least 2,000 votes (the minimum threshold to be eligible to participate in the call), 85 submitted a request for support to FAI, applying for a financial contribution towards a restoration or enhancement project or for investigations conducted by the Trust’s offices to protect threatened contexts.

The sixteen selected projects will be able to count on a total of €200,000 in funding, to be added to the €170,000 earmarked for the places on the podium of the national survey classification and for the winners of the two special classifications. To these must be added the more than €420,000 of co-funding raised by the bodies that submitted the projects to FAI: municipalities, parishes, museum centres and associations, in a number of cases in partnership with universities or other scientific bodies. The opportunity offered by the “I Luoghi del Cuore” call for proposals, in fact, triggers virtuous processes in the area that go well beyond FAI’s own actions: in order to implement the projects, new networks of stakeholders are created, attracting further funding and focusing attention, ideas and energy on the places that have been voted for.

More than half of the requests accepted relate to enhancement projects, which aim to describe the places and their relationship with the local area, extend their knowledge and make them better known and easier to use.

 

Here are the 20 places that will be supported under “I Luoghi del Cuore” 2020:

* Cuneo-Ventimiglia-Nice: the Railway of Wonders (1st place)

* Castello di Brescia (3rd place)

* La Via delle Collegiate, Modica (RG) (4th place)

* Ospedale e Chiesa di Ignazio Gardella, Alessandria (5th place and winner of Historical Places of Health)

* Chiesa rupestre di San Nicolò Inferiore, Modica (RG) (6th place)

* Ponte Acquedotto, Gravina in Puglia (BA) (7th place and “Place of the Heart” with the most votes on the web)

* Eremo di Sant’Onofrio al Morrone, Sulmona (AQ) (9th place and winner in Italy above 600 metres)

* Chiesa Santa Maria Gesù Lo Piano, Polizzi Generosa (PA) (13th place)

* Forte Aurelia, Rome (19th place).

* Tempio di Hera, già “Cattedra” di Pitagora, in Megale Ellas, Bernalda (MT) (27th classified)

* Bacino del Rio Grande, Amelia (TR) (29th place).

* Fescina, Quarto (NA) (34th classified)

* Borgo di Monesteroli, La Spezia (38th place).

* Tempio internazionale del Donatore, Pianezze di Valdobbiadene (TV) (42nd classified)

* Giardino degli Angeli, Castel San Pietro Terme (BO) (47th place).

* Chiesa di Santa Eufemia, Corte Franca (BS) (51st place).

* La Floridiana, Naples (58th classified)

* Cortile di San Cosimato, Rome (76th classified)

* Portovecchio – Zona Militare, Mirandola (MO) (139th classified)

* Chiesa e Museo di San Cassiano di Controne, Bagni di Lucca (LU) (142nd classified)