Ancisi (LpRa): Restore Palazzo Ghigi from ruin and squalor. Petition exploit

“Exploit of the petition, proposed and carried out by Rosanna Biondi, member of the Lista per Ravenna operational committee, so that the mayor wants “Restore Palazzo Ghigi which has been in ruins and rot for years”. Launched just last Wednesday, but not yet publicized, it had already collected 280 signatures last Monday. The collection continues on the forms deposited at the Lista per Ravenna office, in the municipal building in Piazza del Popolo, and also, at the moment, at the Pellicceria Piazza del Popolo, the Tobacconist Rasponi and the Casa del Caffè Mokador in via Gioacchino Rasponi, the House of Plastic and Toys in via Mentana, the Tabaccheria da Pam in via degli Spreti 55/57. Citizens, Italian or foreign, at least 16 years old, who reside or carry out their main work or study activity in the municipal area of ​​Ravenna can sign the petition.

Casa Ghigi is a monumental palace located in via Raul Gardini, in the historic center of Ravenna, dating back to the late Renaissance fifteenth century, at the time of Venetian rule, of which it represents one of the few remaining testimonies in our city. The Municipality purchased it in 1965, centralizing the registry office, civil status, electoral office, conscription and statistics. By recently moving them to the outskirts, in addition to depriving the historic center of Ravenna of these essential services, the building was no longer cared for, leaving it abandoned and in disrepair. The building has two circular chimneys, among the few survivors in the city, placed on the roof with two “shed” pitches overlooking the facade. Under the five-arch portico with Lombard capitals and Istrian stone brackets, there is the entrance and the windows with marble jambs. The flooring of the portico is made of natural stone cobblestones from the period, the only one left in Ravenna. Between 1754 and 1852 it hosted the famous inn “Golden Sword” which received illustrious guests from all over Europe. Inside, the public hall had a magnificent glass vault, supported by a wrought iron structure with floral decorations, created to cover the internal courtyard. Valuable example of a late Art Nouveau ceiling, probably from the 1920s, it is feared that it has collapsed. Since nothing is known for certain about the degradation and ruins inside the building, the indecent squalor of the portico is plain to see for all passers-by, Ravenna residents, visitors and tourists, whose pillar on the south-east corner, propped up for years because it is at risk of collapse, it is subjected to daily insults from vandals and graffiti artists, the abandonment of waste and rubbish and its use as a latrine.

In 2021, the de Pascale Council announced that it had placed Casa Ghigi at the center of a safety project, costing 200 thousand euros, with the aim of “to eliminate the most obvious phenomena of instability affecting the building and in particular the consolidation of the portico and the staircase of the former registry office”. This communication was then issued: “The interventions concern both the foundations and the elevated part of the portico and stairwell, currently shored up. The main objective of the feasibility study drawn up and approved is the conservation of the property, which has a high value from a historical-architectural point of view and therefore falls within the definition of cultural property”. Since then, however, nothing has been heard of it.

Hence the intent declared by the petition: “Recall the municipal administration of its duties and responsibilities, in the face of its own negligence/carelessness and inability to protect such a precious cultural asset, dear to the city”.”