LECCE – “The civilization of a people is recognized by the cult of the dead. Because, yes, the cult of the dead was born at the same time as civilization. The great men of letters have reminded us of this, ancient history has taught us this, of the very first civilizations in which the cult of the dead highlighted the care and attention towards deceased loved ones. If it is true, as it is true that civilization is recognized by the cult of the dead, the axiom in Lecce is overturned; because here the thesis should be reread in reverse: incivility.” Adriana Poli Bortone, centre-right mayoral candidate Lecce, declares this.
“The lack of attention and care of an administration that is deaf to the needs of citizens finds its maximum expression in the cemetery: very tall weeds which in many cases completely submerge the tombstones, electric wires discovered in numerous points of the monumental cemetery of Lecce, pavements and bumpy streets, treacherous for visitors who could easily fall, unsafe trees, lights absent for over a year in the votive chapels, walls with very obvious cracks, semi-unsafe funerary monuments wrapped with tape to signal the danger for anyone arriving in the place of worship to honor the memory of loved ones. A situation that was reported to us on the dedicated number: 377.0833125, the direct line of the centre-right mayoral candidate with the citizens on several occasions. With great regret, even for those with more serious walking problems, they are denied access because it is practically impossible with means. Not impossible, but highly prohibitive for people with disabilities in a wheelchair who would have to avoid potholes, uprooted tree trunks, crushed asphalt in several places along the route. The sacredness of a place that is the historical memory of a city and its people, a bridge between the past and the future, between those who left before us and those who remain, cannot be reduced to an unseemly state.
“It’s shameful, underlines the centre-right mayoral candidate Adriana Poli Bortone. Only a few years ago Salvemini promised to make that place a “Garden of memory”, an open-air museum. And in fact the funerary architecture, including the medieval church of Saints Niccolò and Cataldo, would also deserve it and instead today of that vaunted and never implemented Garden of Memory, what remains is the desert of oblivion, a ghostly, narrow place. Now let’s leave aside the broken promises, but care and attention cannot be missing. It is a moral obligation, a tacit pact with our ancestors, with those who left us before us, which must be honoured. Maximum attention and care start from there. And we will not compromise on this if there is an administrative change of pace. On the other hand, as president of the Euromed Agency, specifies the mayoral candidate for the centre-right – I strongly wanted the prof’s project. Giampiero Personè who allowed the Lecce cemetery to be included in the atlas of Italian monumental cemeteries in September 2023. A first step towards a broader project that gives the right valorization to our monumental cemetery, also through a targeted dissemination activity that allows the historical and artistic value of that place to be known to the people of Lecce, first and foremost, but also to the many tourists. However, this cannot be the starting point to give the right value it deserves. Unfortunately, the place today needs care first and then valorisation.”
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