A conference in Trieste on Green Museums: management and sustainability for historic gardens

On the occasion of the opening of the Ars Botanica exhibition, Green Museums will be held at Miramare Castle on September 15 and 16. Sustainable Beauty, focused on the attempt to take stock, by state museum institutions with Park (there are six in Italy: Uffizi Galleries, Villa Adriana and Villa d’Este Autonomous Institute, in Tivoli, Royal Museums of Turin, Historical Museum and Park of Miramare Castle, Reggia di Caserta, Capodimonte Museum and Real Bosco di Capodimonte) on the complexity of the management, conservation, protection and enhancement of green museums, an interesting topic also because it is linked to sustainability and the historical garden as a social and productive space, a landmark of the surrounding area, characterized by a close relationship between architecture, environment and nature.

Over the past four years, the reflection on the complexity of the management, conservation, protection, and enhancement of Green Museums has been deepened and shared in a series of meetings organized by the autonomous national museums with park in order to define the guidelines of actions, programs, and projects to be carried out in a coordinated and supportive perspective. This platform of meetings, called the Green Table (whose historical group is composed of the directors of the Uffizi Galleries, Villa Adriana Autonomous Institute and Villa d’Este, in Tivoli, Royal Museums of Turin, Historical Museum and Park of Miramare Castle, Reggia di Caserta, Museum and Real Bosco of Capodimonte) has emphasized the peculiar characters, needs, problems and points to be enhanced of these institutions in a constructive confrontation for a reflection on common objectives and necessary operational interventions.

This conference takes the form of an expanded continuation of the sharing initiated and conceptual and operational development of the meetings and reflections of the Green Table on the conservation, periodic and planned maintenance, enhancement and management of the historic garden, which has also seen in many meetings the participation ofAPGI. A treasure chest of a fragile living heritage, the historic garden, considered as a work of art and artifact that includes architectural monument and plant monument, originated at times as a useful vegetable garden and at the same time a place of delight and recreation for noble families, evolved as a social and productive space, and in any case tends to be a landmark of the surrounding area, characterized by a close relationship between architecture, environment and nature.

In addition, the historic garden constitutes a scientific resource that can contribute to providing answers to the needs of environmental sustainability, including in relation to the problems of climate change, as the heritage of scientific knowledge, techniques and practices elaborated and tested in the past and present for its construction and management is extremely broad and important, although still little considered. The historic garden is a “green museum,” constantly moving and in constant flux, an organic structure with a plant soul, in which a different operational action than in monumental and museum heritage is essential. Like all cultural and historical heritage, it is a common good, a collective asset that must be enjoyed by the public and often bears the brunt of considerable human influx.

The historic garden is also a key environmental and ecological resource for the quality of life and the physical and mental well-being of the population. Therefore, the Miramare conference aims to solicit a commitment and define a discussion on the interventions necessary for the knowledge and enhancement of the heritage of Historic Gardens and Parks, initiating a reflection on the knowledge, conservation and management of plant heritages, the role of designers and gardeners, operational aspects related to the necessary use of sustainable practices, the training of operators, and the practices of conservation, design, operation and management of plant heritages.

It will also be important to touch on the theme of the relationship between garden and context, both in terms of the compositional relationships that places have with the larger landscape and the functions of the presence of agronomic activities and the governance of land holdings generally connected as landscape systems of historic mansions. Miramare Park is the most important historical garden in the northeastern area of Italy and a historical landmark in Mitteleuropa in terms of history and location.

With this conference it intends to position itself as a regular meeting place so as to create a scientific and operational reference for other historic green areas in the use of sustainable and eco-sustainable practices. The conference will be structured around the themes related to the in-depth study of the function of the Historic Garden and its configuration, in relation to its maintenance and management, the identification of guidelines for a cognitive study of the tree heritage, and for the definition of a plan for preventive conservation, periodic, programmed and constant maintenance, study and design of long-term interventions, marked by the conscious and economic use of resources and the protection of biodiversity.

These are the thematic paths proposed in the conference:

1. Compatibility between garden identity, public use, enhancement, conservation and sustainable management practices in the context of future perspectives.

2. Management plans: knowledge and census of the tree and plant heritage as a whole; routine maintenance programs and extraordinary interventions; qualification, training and use of specialized professionals working in a historical park

3. Sustainability and biodiversity in its historical, current landscape context

4. Experimentation with forms of management that integrate sustainable and productive agricultural management (animal husbandry, dairy production, beekeeping, floriculture) in coherence and continuity with historical management. Speakers attending the conference free of charge will be given 15 minutes for exposition and will be able to make use of multimedia aids.

Pictured is the Miramare Park in Trieste. Photo by Marco Milani

A conference in Trieste on Green Museums: management and sustainability for historic gardens

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