Lodi's Plant Cathedral will be demolished. It had been inaugurated only two years ago

It had been inaugurated exactly two years ago, but now the Lodi Vegetable Cathedral, which opened on April 23, 2017, will most likely be demolished. The large monument designed by Giuliano Mauri (Lodi Vecchio, 1938 - Lodi, 2009), a leading figure inenvironmental art, is entirely made of wood: it occupies an area of 1,608 square meters and consists of 108 wooden columns each 1.20 meters in diameter (making the Cathedral a kind of “building” 18 meters high, 72 meters long and 22.48 meters wide). It is, however, a giant that, despite being only two years old, is already very tried and suffering: windstorms, neglect and, now, even an attack by a fungus, have decimated the Cathedral’s columns (there are only twenty-eight left).

The problems began in September 2018, when a wave of bad weather had caused the first collapses, and after further damage, the current situation has arrived: last April 9, the Municipality of Lodi, governed by a center-right junta with a leghist traction, had expressed its willingness to use a lawyer to ascertain the reasons that led to the collapse of the Cathedral, and above all that of demolishing what was left of the work that had been built in memory of Giuliano Mauri, in his city. “Our priorities,” said Mayor Sara Casanova, “are to ensure the safety of the area and to reopen as quickly as possible the bicycle path that connects Lodi to Boffalora d’Adda, so the intention is to remove the few remaining columns, safeguarding the essences that had been planted inside them, but we do not yet know how and when this operation will be implemented: We will proceed according to the evaluations that we will carry out with the lawyer.” At the same time, the municipal administration has mandated the removal of all signage indicating the Cathedral Vegetation in the municipal territory, and the deletion of all references to the monument from institutional sites. At the moment, however, investigations into the precise causes of the collapses are still ongoing.

The prevailing feeling is one ofbitterness: soon, nothing may be left of the Vegetable Cathedral, and there is no certainty about its reconstruction, despite the fact that the deputy mayor and councillor for culture, Lorenzo Maggi, stressed that the Vegetable Cathedral “is an artistic work that has been identifiable for the city and that we wanted to enhance it with events that are certainly highly appreciated by the people of Lodi,” and stated that the administration will engage “in the search for funding, which can be found from public and private investors, for the reconstruction.” The most disappointed are Giuliano Mauri’s family members, who have asked that what remains of the Cathedral, described as a “pile of rubble” by Francesca Regorda, Mauri’s niece, no longer be associated with the artist’s name (the municipality has undertaken the work of removing signage and references also to respect the family’s desire to protect the artist’s name).

There is also to be considered that the creation of the monument cost as much as 300. 000 euros, and also for this reason, the demolition of the Vegetable Cathedral has become a topic of political confrontation: the 5 Star Movement, in opposition, points the finger both at the previous administration, according to the Pentastellates guilty of having wanted an expensive work without it being a “priority of the city,” and at the current one, which would have “waited helplessly for the collapse of the columns,” and demands that those who did wrong pay the consequences. For the center-left opposition, the responsibility lies with the current junta, which allegedly left the Cathedral in neglect. “It is not enough to invoke the exceptional nature of a climatic event to justify the shocking collapse of the Vegetable Cathedral,” said Andrea Ferrari, secretary of the Lodi PD. “The work had already been in obvious fragile conditions for some time, which the municipal administration ascertained belatedly despite repeated and authoritative reminders, and which it confronted only with a safety measure that did not serve to curb the structural degradation, limiting itself to isolating the area, without any preventive intervention.” The administration, for its part, maintains that it has no responsibility, and it will therefore be necessary to wait for developments to see how the situation evolves.

So, for the Municipality of Lodi another heavy shingle: after the national media resonance for the case of school canteens from which foreign children were excluded, after the case of theHistorical Archives closed indefinitely, now it is the turn of the Vegetable Cathedral, which is in danger of disappearing without it being known whether it will be able to be admired again in the future. The fact remains that, at the moment, it is necessary to wait for the city’s expert report to learn more about the causes of the collapses, as well as the assessments of the heirs, who currently cannot say whether the work will be rebuilt, nor whether this will be done in Lodi.

Lodi's Plant Cathedral will be demolished. It had been inaugurated only two years ago

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