Mass, imminent tree cutting at Villa Rinchiostra, protests ignite

In Massa, the debate around the park of Villa Rinchiostra, the former hunting lodge of the Cybo-Malaspina family built starting in 1675 by architect Alessandro Bergamini and now home to the Gigi Guadagnucci Museum, is heating up. A major redevelopment plan, worth 3 million 43 thousand euros, in fact calls for the transformation of the green area into an Italian-style garden, with paths and fountains, statues and flower beds. The problem is that the plan calls for the removal of 80 trees.

The Rinchiostra park sees the presence of numerous essences: these are mainly pines and holm oaks, which characterize the park, but inside the park there are numerous plants. There are, for example, two majestic cedars of Lebanon right in front of the Villa, and then more orange trees immediately at the entrance, palm trees, laurel hedges, poplars, magnolias, yews, plane trees, field maples, locust trees, even a Himalayan cedar. Some of these trees will be cut down, environmental associations have complained, although Public Works Councillor Marco Guidi said that only the trees necessary to restore the garden’s pathways will be removed, according to the prescriptions sent by the Superintendence for the project submitted in 2017, and that those removed will be replanted. “The goal,” Councillor Guidi told the newspaper La Nazione, “is to redevelop two hectares of the park and we are following the project approved by the previous administration in June 2018. Interventions will be limited to what are the requirements of landscaping, for the pathways, and to replant in their place native-type trees consistent with the history of the villa. As per the design, we will restore the central fountain, the walkways and the 4 fountains in the center of each. All usable for the citizenry. The trees remain, some will be removed but also replaced.” The alderman went on to say that he was amazed that “the project had a participatory path with many assemblies with citizens so either you didn’t see it or you didn’t want to see how it was even then. In any case, we are willing to improve it further if possible.” The Superintendent’s Office then prescribed the verification of the tightness of the plants, the thickening of the essences and the establishment of a maintenance program for the next ten years.

On the front of the critics is the Massese section of Italia Nostra, which sent a letter to Mayor Francesco Persiani: “Italia Nostra,” it reads, “cannot but declare itself in principle in favor of the project to restore the ancient garden with the restoration of the four basins and the paths. It is indeed a very ambitious project, and precisely for this reason we think it is appropriate to advance some doubts that should be clarified before the intervention is assigned to a contractor. The project actually dates back several years and was presented, as a preliminary project, already by the previous administration in 2018. However, we are not aware, but perhaps we are mistaken, that there have been other public presentations since then, and therefore we remain a bit displaced even though we think that the executive project cannot be very different from the preliminary one as it should restore a well-defined layout as it results from the historical cartography. Given, however, that this is really a very important intervention, it should in our opinion be presented publicly. If this in these pandemic times is not possible, at least it should be properly publicized on the municipality’s website. The same goes for the prescriptions of the Superintendency, which should be made public, and for the botanical study that surely preceded the drafting of the project. Besides being ambitious, the project in fact in some respects could be painful by implying the felling of some trees. It is hoped that everything will be done to limit such felling as much as possible while safeguarding in particular the monumental trees that provide shade and beauty to the garden park. The amount of trees that some people think should be cut down seems to us to be really excessive (80 trees would be really a lot) and it would be good to be clearer in this regard. Of course, but we are sure that this has been dutifully taken into account, there will be an area equipped for children’s play to be safeguarded. Needless to say, the maintenance and surveillance of the garden will greatly commit the resources of the municipality and more generally of the city, and we are not referring only to economic resources.”

Criticism also comes from the opposition (which was administering the city at the time of the project’s approval): “We are not against the intervention on the park and the villa,” Pd councilman Stefano Alberti commented to Tirreno, “but an important project is being distorted. The cutting of 80 plants worries us, while recognizing the importance of the planned intervention. I can say that the announcement is an achievement of the Pd circle and the residents of the area, and on the works we agree very much, just as we are in favor of the recovery of the villa and the garden, but we believe that the vegetative planting of the Rinchiostra should not be distorted.” In addition, Alberti also oppoine historical reasons: the park “was not born as an Italian garden, over the centuries it has had several transitions. In fact, all the exotic plants present were inserted by the different properties, which were based on the romantic type garden. We ask for respect, environmental, botanical and historical, so that we proceed carefully and without distorting the park. Eighty plants are eighty plants, and cutting them down is an insult to the city.”

Meanwhile, for Jan. 6, at 11 a.m., the Pd circle of Quercioli-Villette (the neighborhood in Massa where Villa Rinchiostra is located) has organized a flash mob to protest the cutting of the trees.

Pictured: Villa Rinchiostra (photo by Enrico Amici)

Mass, imminent tree cutting at Villa Rinchiostra, protests ignite

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