They started in Palermo, in the presence of the Minister of the Interior Matthew Piantedosithe restoration works of the monastic complex of Santa Caterina and of the Church of San DomenicoThe two places of worship are part of the over 260 churches on the island that belong to the Religious buildings fund (Fec) managed by the Ministry of the Interior.
«The restoration of these buildings – said the regional councillor for Cultural Heritage Francis Paul Scarpinato – not only preserves the invaluable artistic and architectural heritage that these places hold, but also gives back to the community a space of faith and memory, strengthening the cultural identity of the city and enhancing its rich Renaissance and Baroque past”.
The cost of the works, financed under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), amounts to a total of 3.19 million eurosThey will be carried out under the high supervision of the Superintendency of Cultural Heritage of Palermo, which has taken care of all the technical and administrative aspects, by virtue of a memorandum of understanding existing between the Region and the Ministry of the Interior and will have a duration of 426 daysto be completed by December 2025.
For the monumental complex of Saint Catherine we will proceed with the recovery and restoration of some parts of the structure. Specifically, the works will involve a conservative intervention on the fronts of the church facing Piazza Pretoria and Piazza Bellini; on the “letterini” (as defined in the monastery’s archive documents), or small platforms, in succession in the upper perimeter of the church, through which the nuns participated in religious functions; the maintenance of the roofs and the construction of the toilets, as well as laboratory investigations to monitor the effectiveness of the conservative interventions.
The intervention at Saint Dominic instead, it is aimed at removing the conditions of degradation found on the roofs, at the conservation and protection of the wall structures, the internal facings and the decorative apparatus of the chapel of San Giuseppe. Operations will be carried out to restore the functionality of the roofs, the reconstruction with new wooden beams and trusses, the revision of the rainwater disposal system, the consolidation of the reed vault of the central nave and the transept and, finally, a conservative intervention will be started on the external front on Piazza San Domenico.