Desideria Pasolini dall'Onda, founder of Italia Nostra, passes away at 101 years old

She passed away on the night of Friday, Oct. 29, at the age of 101, Desideria Pasolini dall’Onda, founder in 1955 of the association Italia Nostra, together with Giorgio Bassani, Umberto Zanotti Bianco, Elena Croce, Hubert Howard, Luigi Magnani Rocca and Pier Paolo Trompeo: the goal, avant-garde for those times, was to create an association that had at heart the protection of Italy’s art and environment. Of Italia Nostra he was also president between 1998 and 2005. Born in 1920 into an aristocratic family from Ravenna, Desideria Pasolini dall’Onda spent a lifetime for culture, so much so that in 2002 she was awarded the title of Cavaliere di Gran Croce al Merito della Repubblica by President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi for her activities. “Among the women who have contributed most to the defense of the historical, artistic and cultural heritage of the Bel Paese,” the motivation could be read, “Desideria Pasolini dall’Onda occupies an absolutely priority place. Her generous battles of more than 50 years for the protection of the landscape, both in Italia Nostra, of which she was founder and president, and on so many other occasions, have left a profound mark on the long and arduous history of environmental protection in our country.”

During her activity as president, she devoted herself above all to the preservation of the Italian Agrarian Landscape and gathered around her brilliant intellectuals such as Nicola Caracciolo and Antonio Cederna and important names in contemporary Italian urbanism, such as Vezio De Lucia, Italo Insolera, Leonardo Benevolo, and Bernardo Rossi Doria.

In an interview published in the Bulletin of Italia Nostra in 2013, Desideria Pasolini dall’Onda recalled the many battles but, above all, explained the innovative and revolutionary aims that were at the basis of the associative idea: “Unlike the other realities that already existed,” Desideria Pasolini Dall’Onda recalled, “we were the first association of volunteers that wanted to protect the entire cultural heritage in its entirety. That is, we had a new ’global’ vision: we did not just want to protect that particular castle, villa or monument, but their entire context and environment. In doing so, we made the concept of territory public. Now everyone talks about it, but at that time we did not. We felt it was our duty to know it and save it.”

“With deep sorrow but also gratitude for her unquestioned merits and her solicitous participation in the life of the association,” Italia Nostra writes in a note, “Italia Nostra pays its last, moving farewell to her.”

In the photo, Desideria Pasolini dall’Onda with Carlo Azeglio Ciampi

Desideria Pasolini dall'Onda, founder of Italia Nostra, passes away at 101 years old

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