COSENZA – After the presentation at the Brettii and Enotri Museum on 18 April, in the presence of the Mayor Franz Caruso and the Councilor for Urban Planning Pina Incarnato, the conservation and restoration project of the Balilla fountain in Piazza Crispi, the result of synergy between the municipal administration and the Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences of the University of Calabria, was illustrated this morning to the Urban Planning Commission of Palazzo dei Bruzi, chaired by councilor Francesco Turco. Guests of the council body were Professor Donatella Barca, coordinator of the degree course in conservation and restoration of cultural heritage at Unical and professor of Petrography, and the students who materially they will take care of the monument, dating back to the fascist period and inaugurated on 21 April 1934 by the then mayor Tommaso Arnoni.
It was the President of the urban planning commission, Francesco Turco, who recalled the collaborative relationship initiated between the municipal administration and the University to carry out restoration and study of stone material assets owned by the Municipality, including the works of the MAB. Turco expressed his satisfaction for sharing this important moment.
Professor Barca recalled that the degree course of which she is coordinator is quite young, having been started in 2016. This is a degree course enabling the practice of the profession of restorer, with a five-year single-cycle master’s degree course. As part of the course, there is also a cycle of 450 hours of laboratory activities, on works made available to the Superintendency under the guidance of expert restorers. “In this way our students acquire the skills necessary for their professional start as restorers”. Their activity is carried out mainly on Calabrian artistic assets, sometimes even outside the region, as happened with the frescoes of the Nocera Castle or the floor mosaics of Pompeii. In the city of Cosenza the students of the degree course took care of some restorations inside the Cathedral, others concerned the altar of the Madonna della Fever, in the church of San Domenico and, in the regional context, inside the Roman villa of Casignana. “If on the one hand – said Donatella Barca – we train our students, on the other we also provide a service to the city, because we give citizens the opportunity to learn about the beauty of our heritage and enhance it”.
The project makes use of the supervision of prof. Antonio Barbera. The students Miriam Conforti and Alessio Durante illustrated the conservation and restoration interventions in detail to the urban planning commission. Also present with them were the other course colleagues Giulia Palermo, Sara Perenz and Francesca Teti. The state of conservation of the monument was carefully analysed, presenting different types of degradation due to atmospheric agents, the materials and the execution technique of the work, previous interventions, but also accidental causes. Due to water infiltrations, the metal parts inside the statue have undergone oxidation and a consequent increase in volume, also causing detachments and losses of parts of the modeling which have left the iron structure exposed, as in the left calf of the statue. Balilla athlete. The intervention will be completed by a final protection phase to slow down degradation through the application of waterproofing products to limit the absorption of rainwater and humidity. The restoration should start at the beginning of the next academic year 2024-2025. Donatella Barca also added that on the restoration project of the Fontana del Balilla an experimental scientific thesis was also developed to better understand the different aspects of the degradation which affected it.
The commission was well attended and there were several interventions by as many councillors. Francesco Caruso thanked the students and Professor Barca “because these activities which arise from the institutional synergy between the municipal administration and the University are important for the purposes of valorising our architectural and artistic assets”. Appreciation was expressed by councilor Caruso himself for the meritorious activity that the municipal administration has put in place, regardless of any ideological prejudice. “The restoration and conservation activities that concern the Fontana del Balilla – added Francesco Caruso – fit perfectly into the complex of redevelopment and regeneration interventions that are affecting the entire area of Piazza Amendola”. Councilor Caruso also came up with the proposal to involve the students of the degree course in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in Piazza XV Marzo, created by Giuseppe Pacchioni. On this point, Professor Barca did not exclude the possibility, always conditional on the conclusion of the other restorations involving the students and in any case after the end of the restoration of the Balilla fountain, taking into account that the timing will be that of teaching. Alessandra Bresciani, favorably impressed by the skills and professionalism of the students who illustrated the project, proposed that they apply on the lists for the election of the municipal youth council which will be convened in the near future.
Councilor Francesco Alimena underlined how for the students of the course the restoration of the Balilla fountain will represent “an important opportunity to be able to participate in a significant phase of rebirth of the city and above all of the historic center which will be affected, in the same period, by construction sites of the CIS. On the possible restoration of the Statue of Liberty, Alimena was open to the possibility of its inclusion in the interventions planned by the CIS on the old Villa. Mimmo Frammartino concluded the series of interventions, recognizing the merits of the restoration activity and suggesting that traces of this journey remain in the creation of an audiovisual document that documents the various phases.
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