Italia Nostra has called a demonstration to save them, but Work has already started to demolish the Hamon towers. This morning a crane was brought closer to the symbol of Ravenna’s industrial archeology to begin, presumably after the Easter break, the work to raze the artefacts made famous by Antonioni’s film “Red Desert” to the ground. In that case the demonstration called for next April 7th could prove useless.
Italia Nostra doesn’t give up: “Landscape authorization first”
Italia Nostra, however, does not give up and in a note sends “a request to be able to access the Hamon ex Sarom towers and view, also through qualified technicians, their actual state. These are structures with a very solid framework of rod reinforcement and iron mesh and made up of cement-based blocks: it is difficult to imagine that, although old, they are at risk of collapse. And even if some fragments fell, this does not justify their demolition, given that the photovoltaic system project would not be of public use, while the area in which it should be built is very vast, so the interference is irrelevant.
It also sends a warning to the Port Authority, Municipality, Superintendency and ENI to proceed with the demolition at least until the landscape authorization is made public, in this case certainly necessary as the intervention substantially modifies the landscape. Does the authorization exist and how is it justified?
Deleting structures of this kind, which elsewhere are redeveloped and adapted for cultural, social and tourist uses, impoverishes our territory and causes dismay. that public administrators such as the mayor and the president of the Port Authority are advocating for the demolition: doesn’t the latter know how his colleagues act towards the historical industrial heritage? Let us recall, just as an example, the operations carried out just a week ago to secure the historic Ursus pontoon in Trieste, whose protection sees, in addition to Italia Nostra, also the competent Port Authority at the forefront. Attractions and resources which, if properly understood and valorised, bring the economy, international relaunch, tourism, culture and social enrichment”.
“Our Port Authority – continues the note – purchases the area from Eni with public money for almost 8 million euros, not before having had the towers demolished, which instead, if they were publicly owned, would already be restricted by law , as they were built over 70 years ago. Let’s assume that the president has never seen them up close and has not been able to appreciate the structure that he is preparing to demolish, extraordinary from a spatial, structural and evocative point of view, otherwise his so little aware attitude cannot be explained. A bit like he probably never visited the Berkan B shipyard, where the concession was renewed by AP – retroactively – three times, while the ship, visibly broken, would then sink, with the very expensive removal costing around 15 million euros paid by citizens – given that he talks about “economy” -; removal carried out in conjunction with the criminal proceedings initiated for the sinking, and which perhaps, without the report and as also admitted by the Judge, perhaps would never have been carried out. Ravenna needs sensitive administrators with profound culture to govern a very fragile and very rich territory, already violated and impoverished by many, very long and heavy environmental, urban and architectural scars which, consequently, also impoverish its social fabric. It is known that “ugly” and inhospitable cities and landscapes worsen the quality of life, and this also translates into economic costs for the community.
Italia Nostra also requests, through access to documents, to view the assessments of the Municipality of Ravenna and to understand how on the one hand the land and the towers already appear to be public property (and therefore subject to ope legis restrictions, unless the Superintendency pronounces to the contrary, but which must be there), on the other it is ENI which deals with the demolition. Unclear steps for which our common heritage of a dock to be recovered which will never see the light will very soon be at the expense.”
