Rocca di Gradara passes to municipality: MiBACT hands over management of 200,000-visitor site

The Rocca di Gradara, one of the most visited sites in the Marche region and in central Italy, will no longer be state-owned: in fact, the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism has reached an agreement with the municipality of Gradara to transfer it to municipal management. In 2019, the Rocca di Gradara had hosted as many as 225,157 visitors, totaling gross receipts of 888,084 euros (about 40 percent of total regional museum receipts): numbers that, in the region, make it the second most visited state site after the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino. The agreement was finalized last week (terms were presented Friday) and comes following a proposal made by the City of Gradara to MiBACT.

The handover includes a commitment on the part of the municipality to guarantee the best conditions for the enhancement of the Rocca: the municipality will be in charge of the ordinary management, and will therefore be able to establish the entrance hours to the monument (including extraordinary openings), it will be able to organize exhibitions, events, concerts, conferences, and presentations. On the other hand, the director of the Rocca will remain a state official, from the Regional Directorate of Museums of the Marche, appointed by MiBACT: the director will be in charge of approving the program of cultural activities and initiatives for the enhancement of the Rocca (this program will have to be submitted by the Municipality to the Regional Directorate within sixty days of the agreement, and will have to be approved by MiBACT). In addition, the Municipality will assume all charges for routine maintenance, as well as those for utilities, and will take over the position of the Regional Directorate in contracts entered into with service providers. Extraordinary maintenance, on the other hand, will remain the responsibility of MiBACT. Again, the municipality will undertake to provide, with its own personnel or by contracting third parties, guarding and custody, in addition to maintenance services. The agreement will be for three years (renewable by registered letter or pec within two months of expiration) and the municipality will not be able to transfer ownership of the concession to third parties.

The shares from the ticket office receipts are distributed as follows: in 2020, the MiBACT Regional Directorate will receive 27 percent, the Municipality of Gradara 57.05 percent, and the ticket office concessionaire 15.95 percent. In 2021, MiBACT 35%, Municipality 49.05% and concessionaire 15.95%. In 2022 and 2023, MiBACT 40%, Municipality 44.05%, concessionaire 15.95%. The current ticket will be increased by 2 euros, the agreement states. The Municipality, on the other hand, will collect 100 percent of the revenue from carrying out the enhancement activities. The agreement also stipulates that The Municipality, the Regional Management and the Concessionaire will activate an operational coordination for the planning, implementation, logistics and possible sharing of economic plans of the communication, promotion and enhancement activities of the Rocca. As for the personnel chapter, it will be the Municipality that will provide its own technical and administrative staff to manage the asset.

“This transition,” stressed Gradara Mayor Filippo Gasperi, “represents a crucial moment for our Municipality and our Community. The small but incredibly attractive village of Gradara is once again becoming a single entity under the management of the Municipality of Gradara. This fact, which may seem to be a simple management aspect, will actually allow Gradara to become an accomplished tourist destination, in which each of its attractions, and from now on even the most important one, the Rocca Demaniale, will be an integral part of a tourist and cultural development plan that can further increase, qualitatively and quantitatively, the tourist flows of Gradara. I would like to thank the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism, Dario Franceschini, and the Regional Director of the Museums of Marche, Marco Pierini, for the trust they have placed in us and for the willingness they have shown in these last few months, in which a very important fact has taken place: recognition has been given to the promotion and enhancement work that the Municipality of Gradara has carried out in recent years, jointly with other fundamental subjects such as: Gradara Innova, Pro Loco and the volunteer associations. A constant effort made not only in promotion but also in raising the quality level of the tourist and cultural offer of our municipality. An effort to which the private sector has also contributed, upgrading existing activities or opening others of an excellent level paying particular attention to the identity of the place and its peculiarities.”

On the other hand, strong discontent is registered on the trade union front, with the CGIL Funzione Pubblica (FP CGIL) speaking of a “slap in the face of Gradara.” “we are witnessing,” reads a note dated Aug. 7, “a real ousting of the ’invaders’ through a so-called enhancement agreement that is nothing more than an unconditional surrender of the Ministry, a total renunciation of the management of the most visited site, together with the Ducal Palace of Urbino, by the Marche region, which is put in the hands of the municipality in full, both with regard to the cycles of supervision and custody of the assets and to the maintenance ones.” “We are strongly requesting,” FP CGIL continues, “that MiBACT personnel remain inside the Rocca and, if anything, be integrated and not completely replaced. It is a pity that from reading the deed of cession there is no indication of any intention in this regard. Because, precisely, the invaders must be driven out. If the Ministry personnel go away no guarantee of safety and no condition of protection of the site will be ensured, this at least should be clear to the public and the supporters of these ”innovative models of management.“ And for us, maintaining the conditions of protection of the site is an indispensable condition.” Finally, the union concludes, “the last notation concerns the character of dangerous precedent that this operation has: any mayor will be able to claim, perhaps having a friendly government, the direct management of cultural assets belonging to the state. Which thus becomes more and more an abstract, distant entity, and in cases like these perceived as an enemy by citizens.”

Pictured: the Fortress of Gradara. Ph. Credit Poliedro s.n.c.

Rocca di Gradara passes to municipality: MiBACT hands over management of 200,000-visitor site

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