Underground Solution Preserves Serraglio Walls During Road Construction
The ruins of the ancient walls of the Serraglio will be buried underground again, and the provincial road coming from Villafranca will be elevated to pass over the ongoing ring road construction and to safeguard the same ruins. This is the solution proposed by the Soprintendenza (Superintendence), which the Anas (National Roads Agency) has had to accept; if instead the National Roads Agency had chosen to pursue the line supported by the municipal administration (breaking through the walls to expose about eighty meters of the Serraglio alongside the current discovery), there was a risk of remaining stagnant for years due to objections from the Environmental Heritage authorities.
It will not be so: Anas has incorporated the suggestions of the Soprintendenza, developed a project that was submitted to the City Council, which now must decide. “But we’ve already discussed it together,” the mayor reports, “and we agree. The project will go back to the Soprintendenza, which will give its official opinion, and Anas will resume work. When? I hope as soon as possible.”
The remains of the Serraglio were found at an altitude lower than expected, so, unable to make a hole in the remains, we had two alternatives: to lower the ring road further or to pass it over the ruins and, consequently, raise the road to Villafranca by 3.50 meters.” “In the end,” continues Ivo Mazzi, head of the Municipal Technical Office who followed the case step by step together with Mayor Fausto Sacchetto, “a compromise was reached between Anas and Soprintendenza that should allow Anas to complete the work within the planned timeframe and for the Soprintendenza to safeguard the wall of the Serraglio.”
Will thousands of tons of material need to be relocated there to cover the current hole? “Of course, but luckily much of the excavated material is still nearby,” Mazzi continues, “and Anas, which is ahead of schedule, will contain the costs within the planned budget. Additionally, the overpass will be raised only three and a half meters; this will not hinder the visibility of the castle.”
A bitter feeling remains because the Serraglio, this extraordinary medieval fortification which, as documented by many ancient maps, extended from Valeggio to beyond Villafranca, will soon no longer be visible. “Superintendent Boschi,” Mazzi reveals, somewhat surprised by this attitude, “told us that since the site was now documented, it could be closed again, even to protect it from the weather.”
In the decision of the Soprintendenza, the consideration that there was no certainty of finding a similarly well-preserved structure beside it probably influenced the outcome.
The responsibility of the English archaeologist Hudson is even more serious, who in the late 1980s probably did not conduct adequate surveys. “Apparently,” Mazzi states, “he found foundations but not the buttresses that have now been uncovered, which led the Soprintendenza to feel reassured, reducing the ring road to less than nine meters underground.”
What would have happened if the Serraglio, whose existence was known, had been discovered at the start of the works? Perhaps the idea—opposed by Anas—of a flatter, less costly road less damaging to the landscape might have gained ground. “I hope it’s still possible,” admits Giorgio Vandelli from Archeoclub with regret, “to modify the Soprintendenza’s project to make part of the structure visible.”
Alessandro Foroni