Recovery of the historical and artistic heritage, but also redevelopment of the cultural infrastructure at the service of the community, so that it may become functional for a renewed tourist vocation of the entire territory. These are the aims of the recovery of the Monastery of Santa Maria della Marca, an ambitious project that will finally reach its first goal with the start of work on the recovery and restoration of the former Church of Santa Chiara, scheduled for early April.
Approximately 900,000 euro are the available resources for this first intervention, partly attributable to a financing that goes back as far as the Renzi Government (400,000 euro, as part of the bellezza@governo.it initiative) and 500,000 through PNRR funding, allocated through the Special Superintendency of the Ministry of Culture.
The functional recovery of the Church includes both structural consolidation and restoration works, to bring the Church back to its ancient splendour. In particular, in addition to some frescoes that are currently not fully visible (one of which was already restored in 2015), the restoration of the decorations and other valuable elements such as the high altar, the baptismal font, and the pipe organ is planned.
In addition, the outdoor area, i.e. the square inside the monastery complex, is to be redeveloped. An intervention that responds to both technical needs (avoiding infiltrations and flooding of the church) and the possibility of reinventing this space to host outdoor cultural events. In other words, an area that could benefit the Church itself (perhaps for worship needs) or the Music School, the “G. Verdi” Philharmonic, and associations, as “Sveliamo la Marca” or “Amici della Lirica Umberto Borsò” for whom the Monastery already represents a point of reference.
Great satisfaction was expressed first and foremost by the “Sveliamo la Marca” association, which this year celebrated its tenth anniversary and has been committed since its inception to the recovery of the Church and the enhancement of the entire monastery complex.
“We are very happy”, stressed the Mayor, Francesca Giannì, “to finally arrive at the handover of the building site for the work on the Church of Santa Chiara. It is strategic for us to succeed in recovering our historical and artistic heritage, in concert with the religious institutions in the area that are strongly connected with our entire community, and with which we collaborate daily for a Castelfiorentino that preserves its historical and artistic excellence. That of the Church of Santa Chiara is a particularly happy recovery, since it collects a very important inheritance of bottom-up recovery of cultural assets and their takeover by the community. I would like to recall that the first initiatives aimed at its valorisation stemmed from an association, “Sveliamo La Marca”, born thanks to the simple will of many citizens, who gave a fundamental impulse to the recovery of the monastic complex. This demonstrates that where there is a collective and spontaneous movement from below, supported by the Administration for the protection of artistic heritage, it is possible to obtain funding and achieve results of great significance for our community. Once the intervention is complete, the Church of Santa Chiara can be used both as a place of worship and as a cultural centre, in the perspective of a complete recovery of the entire Santa Maria della Marca complex”.
“We are truly happy”, observes the Councillor for Culture, Franco Spina, “to be able to see the start of this long-awaited construction site and to boast and support the ”Sveliamo la Marca” Association, which is a precious heritage to support in the cultural (and social) planning of the territory and above all in stimulating a new sense of community, based on collaboration. The valorisation of a heritage such as that of the Marca, an important 13th-century Franciscan centre with frescoes by Niccolò Pietro Gerini and Cenni di Francesco, is of great importance not only to preserve the treasure it represents and the history of our territory, but also to start a wider-ranging path to increasingly stimulate the complex and the realities that gravitate around it (such as the Music School and the Chapel of the Visitation in Via Benozzo Gozzoli) as a cultural centre “beyond the bridge”.
“The start of work on the monastery church”, observes Don Valentino Cheli, parish priest of Santa Maria della Marca, ’is the first step towards a historical and cultic recovery of the Christian life of Castelfiorentino and in a special way of the Marca parish. I am happy that all this came about thanks to the drive of a group of people who took the situation of the church to heart and that in active collaboration with the institutions, starting with the municipality and the superintendency, it was possible to reach this goal”.