Two million euros to restore the most important areas of the Doge’s Palace. These are the funds made available by the Defense to ensure that the splendor of the building that has housed the Modena Military Academy for decades is never undermined. The conclusion of the restoration works which particularly affected the Courtyard of Honor was presented yesterday. Not only consolidation and fight against water infiltration but also new lighting. “The Military Academy entered here in January 1863 because the Savoys, who had owned the building, decided that Manfredo Fanti’s idea of establishing a Military Academy in Modena was important, positive – underlined the commander , General Davide Scalabrin – Since then the Army has taken care of it. The two-year restoration work on the Cortile D’Onore, the most valuable part of the Ducal Palace, has been completed via Tre February: the last ones were those following the Second World War”. In fact, after the Second World War the facade had been damaged by bombs and the infrastructure had been plundered by the needy: furnishings but also doors and windows had disappeared. “Even in that case the Army decided to use the few funds it had at the time to restore the building to its former glory. Defense funds were committed and in two years of work everything was sorted out and in 1947 activities resumed of the Academy. Between the ’70s and the ’80s there were problems with the building’s static nature and even in that case the Defense intervened with its own funds. Today we have a building that can be visited by anyone – underlined the commander – they guaranteed the Academy’s long life.” The architect Claudio De Gennaro, director of the works, underlined how particular attention was paid to the restoration, as it is a historic building at a national level. “We have intervened on the ground floor, loggia floor and first floor of the Cortile D’Onore and we are intervening on the 3 thousand m2 façade of Via Tre February – he stated –. We are intervening on the roof of the Torrione dell’acetaia and the construction site on the Ruffini tunnel has begun , which connects the Academy to the old monastery. The interventions we carried out were a continuous fight against water infiltrations: water came from all sides since the famous canal went into the Naviglio, 800m2 of which was completely redone , we fixed the marbles, which had become disconnected over time due to plants and bad weather”. The structure was then waterproofed. But not only. Under the supervision of the Superintendency, which supervised all the works, the new lighting was installed in the Courtyard of Honour. Dozens of people worked on the restoration, with restorers also coming from Venice. Work on the building will be completed by the end of the year[/EMPTYTAG]the facade of via Tre February.
