31 million euro for the Great Museum of Florence Cathedral

The Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore announced that it will invest 31 million euro in the monumental complex that makes up "The Great Museum of the Duomo of Florence".

All operations are funded by the Opera - entity over 700 anni sovrintende alla custodia e conservazione del patrimonio ecclesiastico e non di piazza del Duomo - without any public contribution, thanks to resources that are derived almost entirely from the entrances to the monuments and which have always been reinvested to preserve and enhance this invaluable heritage.

The interventions will be made in a shorter time than previously expected, about 6 years, to be able to submit up to the appointments of 2015 in town, in particular the V National Congress of the Italian Church.

It is a commitment of great significance for the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore and the city of Florence that sees so valued one of its main cultural attractions, tourist and religious.

The Piazza del Duomo is, In fact, visited annually by 8 million tourists, where di 4 access to the Cathedral, free admission, and 1 million and 300 thousand other monuments of the monumental complex of the Great Museum of Florence Cathedral: Brunelleschi's Dome, Crypt of Santa Reparata, the Baptistery of San Giovanni, Giotto's Bell Tower and the Cathedral Museum.

Interventions that will be completed in two years from the Opera 2014/2015, involving a total investment of 31 million and 292 thousand euro and are: the construction of the new Cathedral Museum at a cost of 23 million and 465mila €, of which well 5 million and 267 thousand for the preparation, It will be installed 29 October 2015.

A massive campaign of restorations, with a total investment of 7 million and EUR 84 thousand which includes: the external facades of the Baptistery of San Giovanni, 2 million and 210 thousand euro, the total cost, and its monumental doors with overlying statuary groups.

After the end of the intervention on the Heaven's Gate in 2012, will be the turn of the North Gate of Lorenzo Ghiberti at a cost of 1 one million 620 thousand euro, including the construction of a replica to art that will replace the Baptistery.

E 'in progress and some already achieved the restoration of about 130 works of the new Museum of the Opera, including masterpieces such as Maddalena di Donatello for a total of 2 million and 745 thousand euro.

Inside the Florence Cathedral, the construction of the new exhibition of Santa Reparata, Clock restoration of Paolo Uccello and the Crucifix of Benedetto da Majano, all 3 already completed, and that of the monumental stained glass window, depicting the Assumption cartoon by Lorenzo Ghiberti, the rose window of the facade of the Cathedral.

The cleaning and restoration of the exterior facades of the Cathedral of which will be finished in the latter part adbisale.

It is one of the core activities of the Opera, among the few Italian institutions doing constant maintenance of its monuments, for a total of 40 thousand square meters of marble outer surfaces.

The restoration of some buildings, at a cost of € 743mila, whose facades insist on the Piazza del Duomo, including that of the Canons with the statues of Arnolfo di Cambio and Filippo Brunelleschi.

At last, to facilitate the visit of the monuments and offer a better service, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore will rent the Teatro Niccolini Florence to create the "Duomo experience": from December 2015, everyday, from hours 9 at 17 Visitors who bought a ticket will be admitted to the theater and watch an introductory video to the "Great Cathedral Museum".

The movie 8 languages, lasting 15 minutes, will be screened continuously and will tell the story of the monuments, their context and the salient point to know.

In the face of 31 million investment in 2 years, the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore grossed in 2014, 11 million and 255 thousand euro, on average with the other years, from ticket sales: the 91% the crates, the 3% on site and online 6% from Firenze Card. 480thousand euro are the resources that the 2014 were approved by the activity of the Opera fundrising.

Another intervention of no small importance, after about 2 years of structural work, the new Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence which will be inaugurated 29 October 2015.

The museum houses the most important collection of medieval sculpture and Renaissance Florentine masterpieces by Donatello, Michelangelo, Lorenzo Ghiberti, Luca della Robbia, Arnolfo di Cambio, Tino's Camaino, Nanni di Bartolo, Ghirlandaio and others.

Works carried out over the centuries by the monuments of Florence Cathedral and, for reasons of conservation or in the course of changes and upgrades, were removed from the original location.

The new Museum, which will be characterized by the spectacle of the stands and the grandeur of the exhibition spaces, will be made by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore - the institution founded in Florence 1296 that strives to preserve and enhance the monuments of Florence Cathedral - with a total investment of 45 million euros, without any public contribution, where di 23 million and 465mila are the last two years 2014-15.

The architectural design and construction is by Adolfo Natalini and Guicciardini & Magni architects, Museum director Timothy Verdon.

The new museum will be formed by the union of the old Museum, opened in 1981, and the adjacent Theatre Intrepidi, purchased in Opera 1997, and will 25 rooms on 3 plans, for a total of 5,500 square meters of exhibition space.

The two buildings will be connected in a single path that "while respecting their architectural features historicised, will form a single space ", explain the architects.

This will allow a rational construction of the works, which will be divided between those made for the exterior and the interior of the monuments.

Masterpieces such as Michelangelo's Pieta or the Magdalen Donatello will finally be exposed in appropriate areas that will enable a correct reading of the works and striking.

"The expansion of the museum is a fact of great importance", says Timthy Verdon, "As it will allow the exposure of the entire collection and be able to accommodate monumental works such as the Gates of Paradise by Ghiberti and the other two doors of the Baptistery, along with sculptures that dominate ".

Fulcrum of the new Museum of the Cathedral of Florence will be the grand hall of the Old facade - environment 36 meters in length, 20 height and 15 depth - where one side will be rebuilt a life-size model the incomplete fourteenth-century facade of the Duomo of Florence Arnolfo di Cambio, made possible thanks to a drawing made at the time of decommissioning in 1586-87.

On this giant model, resin marble, will be relocated, heights original, 40 statues and figurines from the ancient facade of the Duomo, including the famous evangelists Donatello, Nanni di Banco, Niccolò Lamberti and Bernardo Ciuffagni.

Front, on the other side of the room, will be exhibited 3 bronze doors of the Baptistery with, center, that of Lorenzo Ghiberti that Michelangelo called "Heaven's Gate", and - above them - the monumental statuary groups made in the sixteenth century, signed by Giovanni Francesco Rustici, Andrea Sansovino and Vincenzo Danti.

The Pietà by Michelangelo will be dedicated room, where the filtered light descend from above.

The work will be located on a central base in stone, in evocation of an altar, that will enable the vision of the sculptural group in line with its religious nature, designed by Michelangelo as his funerary monument.

The central base of the group will be placed on a lift retractable, capable of handling the work upwards in the event of flooding.

Among other areas of the new museum is noted: the first floor of a long tunnel 36 meters where the sculptures will be collected once outside of Giotto's Bell Tower: 54 altorilievi and 16 life-size statues including Jeremiah and Habakkuk, "I Zuccone", Donatello.

Alongside this a second tunnel will collect the wooden models of the fifteenth Dome and Lantern Brunelleschi, and period instruments and elements of scaffolding used by the.

In this space, said Hall of the Dome will be set too large teaching models, spazioin one which will be shown a short film, and an interactive station for those wishing to explore the theme by going to the platform on the Opera "The years of the dome".

On the second floor, then collect another gallery projects desired by the Medici Grand Dukes for a new facade of the Duomo: the collection of large architectural models of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the most important in Italy.

Together with models, Also on display will be the ephemeral decorations made for the wedding of the Grand Duke Ferdinando I with Christina of Lorraine in the Cathedral in 1589.

From this level you can go up to the rooftop terrace from which you will enjoy a new close-up view of Brunelleschi's Dome.

By the number 45 – The Year of 24/12/2014