Old Riva Horse Chestnut Tree Cut Down During Urban Works

A corner of old Riva has disappeared. This sad news is announced by Dr. Paolo Barbagli, a well-known ecologist from Riva, who writes: “Raise your hand if you’ve never stopped, especially in summer, at the bench in the corner between Viale Madruzzo and Inviolata, to enjoy the shade and coolness of the centuries-old horse chestnut tree right in front of a 1700s chapel beside the monastery.

Now you won’t be able to do that anymore, because that horse chestnut tree, during the works to reorganize Viale Madruzzo, was mercilessly (and so far inexplicably) cut down, and it will no longer host the hundreds of small birds that had made it their home, nor will it play its part in cleaning the city air from the carbon dioxide generated by traffic.

The value of the horse chestnut trees and the sense of loss

New arrangements for the avenues and urban decor are welcome, but evidently some people do not like trees, especially horse chestnuts, and in particular the centuries-old ones that should instead be protected as natural monuments.

And what fate awaits, when the work resumes, the other two twin horse chestnuts that flanked the gone one, now looking with concern at a still-dripping stump of memories?