A collaboration agreement was signed yesterday between the Interregional Supervision for Public Works of Sicily and Calabria, the Regional Secretariat for Calabria of the Ministry of Culture and the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Catanzaro-Squillace, for the execution of the intervention restoration, consolidation and safety measures of the Cathedral Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Catanzaroincluded in the program of interventions for the protection and promotion of cultural and historical heritage financed by the Ministry of Infrastructure.
This was made known by the Undersecretary of the Interior Wanda Ferro, which in recent weeks has held a discussion with the bodies involved to overcome administrative difficulties and give impetus to the realization of the work. The Hon. Wanda Ferro recalls that «for the Cathedral of Catanzaro, with interministerial decree n. 279 of 7 November last, an allocation was made for a total of 6 million euros assigned to the Superintendency, divided into 381 thousand euros for 2023, 211,666 euros for the year 2024, 211,666 euros for the year 2025 and 5,195,666 euros for subsequent years. An allocation that is added to the 2.6 million euros allocated by the Calabria Region and the 500 thousand euros already allocated by the Ministry of Culture in order to implement a series of preparatory activities of investigations aimed at gaining knowledge of the sacred palimpsest, with which the Secretariat of Mic, making a significant administrative effort, has entrusted between 2021 and 2022 the definitive and executive design service, as well as the safety and coordination plan, relating to the restoration, recovery and consolidation works of the cathedral, closed in 2018 due to serious critical issues static found particularly in the bell tower and inside the Church itself, where the collapse of an attic was also recorded”.
Undersecretary Ferro adds: «I thank the interregional administrator for public works in Sicily and Calabria, Eng. Francesco Sorrentino – who since his inauguration has given decisive impetus to the realization of numerous important works in the region – and the director Floriano Siniscalco, for the great work carried out with the regional secretary of the Mic Maria Mallemace and with the director of the Superintendency of Archaeology, fine arts and landscape for the provinces of Catanzaro and Crotone Stefania Argenti. An institutional team effort – with the constant attention and collaboration of the archbishop mons. Claudio Maniago who is dedicating great effort to the reopening of the cathedral – which will allow the complex intervention to be completed, which will be carried out in two distinct and non-interdependent lots which will have autonomous implementation. The agreement takes note of the enormous efforts made by the Secretariat and the ABAP Superintendence for the provinces of Catanzaro and Crotone to date to study the solution and the design approach, and aims to establish the ways and times to co-finance the works of restoration, consolidation and safety of the sacred building, accumulating available funding in order to optimize the final result. Following the institutional meetings, the possibility of obtaining an advance payment of the MIT funding quotas for subsequent years through horizontal remodulations also emerged, should it be possible to proceed with the contracting out of the works and the consequent commitment of the sums within a short timeframe”.