Calls for Naples to
be stripped of its UNESCO title
The increasingly dire state of conservation of much of
Naples’s cultural heritage—its churches, monuments, libraries and palaces—has
been highlighted by a damning online report published by one of Italy’s leading
papers, the Corriere della Sera, in January.
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The
church of Santa Maria della Scorziata, lying in ruins [Credit: The Art
Newspaper]
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The report revealed an alarming statistic: Naples has
around 200 closed and abandoned churches. Some have been stripped of all their
furnishings including works of art, some never received the funds they had been
promised, while others received them but never embarked on the agreed
conservation projects. Others still were closed down, restored and then never
opened again.
The report points to years of neglect and mismanagement
by the local and national government, as well as by the Church and the regional
arm of the ministry of culture.
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The
church of Santa Maria delle Grazie with scaffolding from unfinished
restoration work [Credit: The Art Newspaper]
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The city’s historic centre, the largest in Europe, has
been listed as a Unesco World Heritage site for the last 17 years, however the
city’s residents have long bemoaned the state of their heritage, so much so
that a petition, signed by 16 civic committees and 60 leading intellectual
figures, was circulated at the end of last year calling for the city to be
stripped of its Unesco title.
The petition claims the city “does nothing to protect
its treasures” and that “Unesco’s acknowledgement is only valid on paper”. It
included a photographic dossier, documenting the neglect throughout the city,
that was symbolically presented by the group during Unesco’s 40th anniversary
conference at the city’s Federico II University.
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The
church of Sant'Aspreno ai Crociferi, stripped of its interiors [Credit: The
Art Newspaper]
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The mayor, Luigi de Magistris, says that his
administration has just managed to prevent an European Union grant of €100 m,
earmarked for the town centre, from being sent back to Brussels.
Author: Ermanno Rivetti | Source: The Art Newspaper [January 29, 2013]
