Pisa, Miracles Square monuments reopen (with free admission): 'let's give a sign of confidence and hope'

The reopening of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the monuments of Piazza dei Miracoli and the Museum of the Opera del Duomo in Pisa has been set for May 30: theOpera della Primaziale Pisana, the entity that manages the monumental complex in Piazza del Duomo, intends to give a sign of confidence and hope by reopening its monuments even though, as the top management explained at a press conference, the choice would not be economically convenient. And to bring Pisans even closer to their monuments, the Opera has decided to introduce a novelty:free admission for all residents of the province of Pisa every Thursday in June (so on June 4, 11, 18 and 25). The only site that will remain closed will be the Museo delle Sinopie, which is affected by refurbishment works.

Let’s see in detail what the rules to be followed will be, drawn up by the Technical Committee of the Opera della Primaziale. Meanwhile, the attendance quota has been established: the Tower will be accessible by a maximum of 15 people per shift (it is instead 150 for the Cathedral, 250 for the Monumental Cemetery and 100 for both the Baptistery and the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo). There will also be mandatory face masks for visitors over 6 years of age andmandatory use of sanitizing gel, which visitors will find at the entrance to each museum. Those who visit the monuments in the Piazza dei Miracoli will also be required, as one can easily imagine, to respect the interpersonal distance of one meter: the museum staff will be responsible for ensuring that the measure is respected, except inside the Tower, for reasons of available space (visitors to the tower will therefore be equipped with an electronic tag to hang around their neck, which will emit a double signal, acoustic and luminous, if the visitor exceeds the distance separating him or her from another visitor).

Again, only the central ticket office will be open and two stations per shift (out of the four available) will be used: only four visitors will have access to the ticket office at a time, with two being allowed to approach the ticket counters, one waiting inside the hall, and another waiting his turn at the entrance door. There will be an entrance lane and an exit lane, and the flow will be regulated by an Opera staff member. There will be special signage on the information videos in the central ticket office and at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, and information will also be given to agencies, tour guides, and tour operators on how to access the monuments and museums, as well as directions to purchase, as far as possible, tickets by online mode. Finally, information panels on how to visit will be installed in all rooms.

“January 7, 1990,” said Pierfrancesco Pacini, president of the Opera della Primaziale Pisana, “is the sad date when the Opera della Primaziale Pisana was forced to close the Tower of Pisa for the necessary consolidation work to prevent its collapse. I remember the feelings and anxieties that the city of Pisa and the whole world experienced following the complex and courageous choices made by the International Technical Committee, chaired by Professor Michele Jamiolkowski. We never imagined that on March 8, 2020, as a result of the decisions made by the government due to the Covid-19 epidemiological emergency, we would again find ourselves closing the Tower, as well as the monuments and museums in the Piazza del Duomo. In these years, in order to allow visitors to climb the Bell Tower, we never closed the door to visitors; just think that in order to allow visits to continue, we even carried out the material restoration even during the night with incredible organization. Unfortunately, we suddenly found ourselves, almost without realizing it, forced to close. We thought at that moment that the Square of Miracles, as Gabriele D’Annunzio called it, could not be left to itself anyway, and so the Opera della Primaziale Pisana decided in these months to still keep some work open such as cleaning and gardening, security services, and the opening of the Cathedral for prayer needs only. Therefore, the opening of the Tower and its monuments, scheduled for May 30, 2020, is a great event comparable to that December 15, 2001, when we reopened the monument after consolidation works; indeed, in my opinion, it takes on an even greater value, not so much because all the monuments/museums have also been closed (and now reopened), but especially because this opening comes after a period of pandemic that brought the whole country and the whole world to its knees. That is why this initiative was created in an attempt to give a sign of confidence and hope for the near future.”

“The Technical Committee,” says Gianluca De Felice, secretary of the Opera della Primaziale Pisana, “did a very articulate job and produced a set of rules that took into consideration the guidelines provided for the work, the guidelines related to the opening of museums and places of culture, the protocols of the Italian Episcopal Conference for the regulation of masses, the indications received from the Central Institute for Restoration in Rome and the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence for the sanitization of environments, the guidelines inherent to the activity construction site. It is a full-bodied set of standards that we have developed into a special protocol: an initial document that will then have to be evaluated over time according to epidemiological conditions. The Cathedral Square complex will therefore be safe to visit: we hope that visitors will have the will to return to normal life and to visit our monuments. This is also why we thought of the idea of offering free admission: it is a signal we want to give to the province, we felt it was our duty to immediately reconnect with the territory after the closure.”

Pisa, Miracles Square monuments reopen (with free admission): 'let's give a sign of confidence and hope'

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