Ferrara, thanks to a restaurateur's donation, Savonarola's statue will be restored

The statue of Girolamo Savonarola, an 1875 work by Stefano Galletti (Cento, 1832 - Rome, 1905) that stands in the center of Piazza Savonarola in Ferrara, near the Estense Castle, will soon be restored, the Municipality of Ferrara announced. The intervention, costing about 20 thousand euros, will be carried out with Art Bonus funds raised thanks to a single donor, restaurateur Artibano Sivieri, owner of the nearby ’Hostaria Savonarola,’ which is located right in the square.

The work, entrusted by specific determination to the Ottorino Nonfarmale laboratory of Bologna, will begin by January, and if anti-Covid restrictions allow, guided tours of the restoration site will also be organized. The restoration is necessary since the monument is pockmarked by lichens and micro organisms, “responsible” for the stains on its surface: for the cleaning, technicians will use state-of-the-art technologies, using special enzymes that will “eat” the agents that have affected the marble, and their action will clearly not compromise the statue.

This is a state-of-the-art intervention born of the latest experiments: the enzymes used are completely analogous to those present in the human body and involved in the digestive process. This is a natural technique, which does not use chemical compounds, which preserves the surface and the works and, moreover, achieves effects in just a few hours, while with traditional methods the time is significantly longer. Once the cleaning is finished, the Savonarola statue will be restored with mortars based on marble powder and resin in order to repair the lesions, then the marble consolidation work will be carried out with ethyl silicate and nanotechnology: another innovative technique that will allow the monument to be protected from infiltration, which is another pitfall. Water, in fact, as it penetrates the material increases in volume, turning into ice in cold temperatures, and presses on the walls, causing injuries and damage. Therefore, for the entire period of the work, the statue will be “sealed” by a wooden structure, to protect it from bad weather and inclement weather. Also in the program of works is the construction of a staircase suitable for public access to the site for guided tours. An idea born before the dpcm, the implementation of which, as anticipated, will be subject to future anti-Covid provisions.

Ferrara, thanks to a restaurateur's donation, Savonarola's statue will be restored

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