This afternoon at 5pm the cathedral reopens “and it is an invitation to the whole city to come and see what has been created. I must say that the mosaics are exciting”, says the president of the foundation of the same name, Emanuela Scavolini. The works for the opening of new ‘windows’ on the mosaic carpets have been completed, the replacement of the glass worn by the trampling of the faithful and also by visitors, and therefore all the lights have also been changed to have a better view of the mosaic carpets which are been cleaned and polished by technicians. Now the lighting is LED. This all happens eight days ahead of the estimated times that had been set and budgeted for the end of the month. The day before yesterday the last authorization arrived, that is, the last document necessary to reopen the Cathedral for worship with all due respect to the parish priest Stefano Brizi, who for 3 Sundays traveled to the churches of the historic center to say mass.
This entire operation, which takes place 24 years after the installation of the new walking surface of the church, was financed by the Scavolini Foundation with approximately 250 thousand euros. And the works were carried out by a team of Renco technicians, all under the watchful eye of both the bishop and the Superintendence. The visual spaces have been increased by 42 square meters so that the ‘enjoyable’ surface area of the lithostrote is now more than 200 metres, out of a total of around 800. Two new windows have been opened on the sides of the central nave and the one in the center has therefore been enlarged of the church. This operation now allows us to see hitherto hidden carpets, such as the Trojan ship “a unique figuration in the national panorama inspired by the courtly compositions of the medieval period, therefore fish and crustaceans and mermaids to remember the city’s link with the Adriatic”. Not only this but now it will be possible to observe large ‘snippets’ of the ancient mosaic which dates back to the 4th-5th century, the ancient flooring of the church which was then destroyed and set on fire during the period of the barbarian invasions and then rebuilt with the flooring which can be observed now and which goes from the sixth century to the end of the 1200s.
