In recent days, the Ministry of Culture (MiC) announced that it had allocated a further 129 million euros, taken from Pnrr resources, for the restoration and seismic safety of buildings of worship, thus bringing to approximately 374 million euros the total amount of contributions paid for these interventions from June 2022: among these, in the latest allocation, 940 thousand euros were allocated to the seismic adaptation of the Parish Church of San Pancrazio in Sestino, in the diocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro.
Of the original structure of that ancient church – built between the 9th and 10th centuries – only the crypt remains today: over the centuries the building has undergone numerous restoration and remodeling interventions, often as a result of earthquakes, the most serious of which, on 3 June 1781, required the substantial reconstruction of the church by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo I. Also during the 20th century, seismic events compromised the ancient parish church: lastly, the earthquakes of 1997 and 2001 once again required consolidation interventions on the structure which, however, especially after the 2001 earthquake, still requires seismic improvement works with interventions on the foundations, church, rectory, as well as conservative restoration works on the stone walls of the thirteenth-century apse, on the plaster, on the entrance staircase of the rectory, to the external flooring. For this reason, last autumn, the Cultural Heritage Office of the diocese of Arezzo-Cortona-Sansepolcro forwarded to the Ministry of Culture, through the Superintendency of Siena, Grosseto and Arezzo, an in-depth report with the request for financing of the works of consolidation and restoration, long hoped for by the civil and religious community of Sestino.
“We are truly grateful to the Ministry, in its central and territorial branches, for this important contribution – the largest among those destined, with this latest provision, to seven places of worship in Tuscany – and to all those who have made the outcome of the kind that will allow us to secure and restore the famous Parish Church of Sestino”, declared Bishop Andrea Migliavacca. “On the various occasions in which I had the opportunity to go to Sestino and meet the people – he continued -, I felt the load of history and memory represented by the Parish Church of San Pancrazio, as well as the dedication and care that that community had for it reserve; for this reason, I am really pleased that the planned seismic consolidation and restoration interventions can begin soon”.
