SIt’s just after 8.30 in the morning when we go up for the first time of the day Superga. On the road, one bend after another, cyclists making maximum effort and several other fans on foot, all already leaning towards this secular, ritual pilgrimage, essential for those with grenade blood in their veins. Up there on the hill, in the square on the sides of the basilica, a car from the Piedmont Region also stops its journey. The president comes down Alberto Cirio. A few minutes later he will say in front of the plaque commemorating the 31 victims, once the flowers have been laid: «It’s May 4th, so what’s most important to celebrate is not the Giro d’Italia, but the Great Turin. This is why I got up here to Superga so early. On behalf of the Region and all the Piedmontese, to honor the merit and memory of those poor boys who were on that plane, of those champions and of all those who fell 75 years ago. Every May 4th we all become from Turin, we all feel from Turin, we are all from Turin».
Cirio’s words
A moral and institutional commitment that must also extend into the future, concretely: we repeat, the memory of Great Turin it cannot be restricted only to an exercise in beautiful style, in linguistic rhetoric carried by the breeze of elegy, epic, myth and pietistic commiseration. And so we ask him about the Museum of Grande Torino and the Legend of Granata to be built in the Philadelphia: this can only be the next goal to be achieved, 7 years after the inauguration of the sports centre. Cirio: «As a Region we have supported the Philadelphia Foundation since its inception, since its establishment at the beginning of the new century. And we did it in many ways with an active and concrete presence, not just a merely institutional one. The obviously most important contribution was having donated those 3.5 million euros (previous councils; same amount also allocated by the Municipality of Turin; ed.) for the reconstruction of the Philadelphia. But the completion of that area has not yet been completed, it’s true.” As per the Foundation’s statute, «the entire third lot is still to be completed, i.e. the construction and creation of a museum dedicated to Grande Torino and the history of Granata. As you know, it is a project that is absolutely close to our hearts».
Rich and building the Museum
We can open a parenthesis, then. Cyclically in recent years the regional councilor for Sport, Fabrizio Riccahe had declared to Tuttosport That “the Region is ready at any time to guarantee a new significant economic contribution for the construction of the museum. A museum which, moreover, is foreseen by the statute of the Philadelphia Foundation, which manages the area. Precisely for this reason, we tried to involve the president Cairo with repeated public appeals, so that we can all start the new phase of the work together: let’s meet, talk about it, do something… But Cairo never wanted to take up the appeal». Let’s close the parenthesis now.
The commitment of the Region
Yesterday morning, the governor of Piedmont once again guaranteed the commitment of the Region. As Ciriowith Stefano Allasia (president of the regional council) and Gianluca Vignale (chief of cabinet of the council) at his side: «On this May 4th, 75 years after the Superga tragedy, we renew our commitment to promoting and taking new steps dedicated to the birth of the museum in Philadelphia and the completion of the works in that very important area». For the record: of Philadelphia Foundation the Municipality, the Region, Turin and several fan associations have always been part of it. The plans include moving that splendid treasure chest to Fila Museum of Grande Torino and of the Granata Legend, for many years now at Villa Claretta in Grugliasco, the first area of Turin (Museum opened and managed by the non-profit, voluntary supporters’ association, Historical Memory of the Granata). Cirio again: «Committing ourselves to creating the museum in Philadelphia is a duty for historical, social, cultural and sporting reasons, including ethical ones. And I add: it would also become an attraction, an additional attraction for tourists who come to visit Turin and Piedmont. It’s a right and useful thing, in short».
The Cairo provocation
However, those phrases still resonate Cairo from the day before yesterday, right at Philadelphiaduring the inauguration of the flagpole dedicated to the director of Great Turin, Erno Egri Erbstein: «You at the Foundation have a lot of money… use it!». Frost among all those present (imagine the comments on social media, in hindsight…), while one of the members of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, Domenico Beccaria, replied: «The important thing is that we are not asked to pay for the anti-spy sails installed here at the Philadelphia», with an allusion to the request communicated on stamped paper by Turin in recent months (one million euros). A request contested almost unanimously by the Foundation’s Board of Directors. Almost, yes: it is difficult to think that the representative of Cairo’s Turin censored Cairo’s Turin…
