Bardolino’s Disciplinas Church Restoration Begins After Heritage Approval
The preliminary project for the conservation and cultural enhancement of the former Disciplinas Church has been filed with the municipality. This marks the first concrete step towards safeguarding the building owned by the municipality located in Borgo Garibaldi, which is currently in a state of complete abandonment. The project, drafted by architect Arturo Sandrini, will now be reviewed by the building commission and the Superintendence for Architectural Heritage of Verona for the necessary approvals. If no objections are raised, it will then return to the public works commission for final approval. This procedural process will inevitably extend the timeline for intervention on the historically dedicated S. Maria della Misericordia complex.
Administrative Process and Design Phase
“Ideally, work could commence in autumn with the first phase of the project financed by any surplus from the budget,” explains Mayor Armando Ferrari, who is cautious not to raise false hopes. “A more realistic assumption is that the intervention could begin with the 2002 budget and proceed in phases, given that the total cost is a little over one billion and one hundred million lire. Clearly, funding sources and grants need to be explored.” The goal of the municipal administration is to convert the former church into a use compatible with its historic and artistic character after restoration, specifically as a social and cultural center with an exhibition hall.
A prestigious multifunctional space, usable as a large hall for conferences and meetings with a capacity of around one hundred seats, as well as an auditorium. The project aims at restoring the Disciplinas Church in its entirety: covering the roof, internal envelope with necessary infrastructural upgrades, the attached living unit, and the bell tower.
Similarly, the possibility of phased interventions that can be independently implemented has been considered. Architect Sandrini has identified four stages “based on priority criteria (restoration of the roof and wall consolidation are paramount) and functionality (with the second phase, a usable structure is already achievable).” It is evident that executing all interventions in a single lot could “significantly reduce the timeline, from roughly thirty-four months to eighteen-twenty months, possibly resulting in a more substantial cost reduction.”
Historical Value and Architectural Constraints
Located outside the ancient residential nucleus of Bardolino, the Disciplinas Church, along with the neighboring Romanesque San Severo Church, is one of the most interesting architectural buildings in the municipality. Not surprisingly, in 1910, the Ministry of Public Education declared it a monument, a status reaffirmed on October 30, 1950.
“Beyond its apparent formal unity, characterized internally by a rich late Baroque decorative scheme full of stuccoes, the structure presents a ‘multilayered’ composition that reveals its Cretaceous origins and subsequent transformations and enlargements,” writes architect Sandrini. “Up to its late 18th-century configuration, which still characterizes it today.” Despite the monument constraints imposed by the Ministry, there were also proposals to demolish it.
In documents deposited with the archives of the Superintendence for Architectural Heritage in 1962, the then-parish priest of Bardolino, Don Pier Corsini, requested permission from the Curia to sell the property or, alternatively, to demolish it. “We do not know whether this sudden and incomprehensible proposal was specifically aimed at obtaining an affirmative response to the sale request,” explains Sandrini.
“In any case, in 1963, in a harsh report, the Superintendence criticized the illegal sale of the Disciplinas Church conducted without prior authorization to a private individual, and also noted that the same priest had sold the altar, some paintings, and frescoes—also torn out without any authorization.” “Furthermore, the damage caused to the complex continued after the sale. A report from the Superintendence dated 1982 reveals that the owner, in converting the building into a bakery with a bakery oven, carried out a series of illegal works inside. These included a reinforced concrete slab to reduce the height of the rooms in the nave of the former church, functional adjustments for oven installation, all done after demolishing much of the original plaster and replacing two-thirds of the 18th-century floorings.”