Ravenna, 18 April 2024 – The curtain rises on Byron museum. It starts today – with the presentation press conference and the first visits, reserved for the city authorities, of Palazzo Guiccioli and the rooms dedicated to the English poet – the new life of the building on Via Cavour in Ravenna which becomes, to all intents and purposes, Byron’s city. And that the English poet also counts a lot for strengthening cultural and tourist ties (also following the establishment and settlement in Ravenna of the Byron society which will take place on May 25th) which revolve around the English poet. After all, the bond between Ravenna and Byron has solid roots. In fact, in 1988, the year of the bicentenary of the birth of Lord George Byron, Ravenna – on the idea of the then director of the Classense library, Donatino Domini – hosted the largest exhibition in Europe (together with that of the Victoria Albert Museum in London) on the English poet.
36 years later, this time on the occasion of the bicentenary of Lord Byron’s death, Ravenna, together with London, becomes the reference point most important international celebrations of the poet, with the creation of the Byron museum. An extraordinary story links Byron to Ravenna, from 1819 to today, and an extraordinary story links the events on the memory of Byron from that 1988 exhibition to today. In fact, when in 2011 the president of the Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna Foundation Lanfranco Gualtieri and the president of the Cassa di Ravenna Antonio Patuelli initiated contacts with the Municipality of Ravenna for the purchase of the historic city building, the two presidents immediately had the intuition of dedicate the seventeenth-century residence to the memory of its most famous tenant.
And so they called Donatino Domini, entrusting him, after the purchase of the Palace in 2012, with the coordination of the two Scientific Committees formed to direct the establishment of the Byron museum and the Risorgimento museum. Work began immediately on the double level of the renovation of the building entrusted to the designers Maurizio Scarano And Patrizia Magnani and the selection of works, memorabilia and rarities to be placed on display in the museum, many of which had already been protagonists of the 1988 exhibition, a true embryo of the Byronic future of Palazzo Guiccioli. In 2013 the first important turning points: the opening of the construction site for the works and the acquisition of the part of the building facing Via Morigia, initially not yet acquired by the Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna Foundation.
The investment (without affecting the flow of donations to the social, cultural and welfare activities of the Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna Foundation) has allowed the total recovery of the building, its complete use as a museum and the complete restoration of a monument that is not only among the most beautiful and prestigious, but also among the most significant and relevant to its history. And at the same time, with the proceeds from the sale of the building, the Municipality of Ravenna was able to start and complete the multifunctional school complex of Lido Adriano. While the project has grown and the construction site has advanced, with Ernesto Giuseppe Alfieri who succeeded Lanfranco Gualtieri as president of the Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna Foundation in 2017, in 2018 Ravenna hosted the annual international conference of the Byron Society which designated the former Roman and Byzantine imperial capital as the sole Italian headquarters of the same company, dedicated to preserving, disseminating and consolidating Byron’s culture and knowledge throughout the world with conferences, debates, conferences and meetings.
And today Ravenna will experience both the official presentation of the Byron museum – with the president of the Cassa di Risparmio di Ravenna Foundation, Ernesto Giuseppe Alfieri and the president of the Cassa di Ravenna, Antonio Patuelli – both the evening show with Franco Nero at 9pm at the Basilica of San Francesco. Those who have booked on the Palazzo Guiccioli website will also be able to follow the guided tours today and tomorrow.
Tags: guided tours bicentenary death
