Rimini, the new Malatesta Square where you can splash in the water is already a case

The new Malatesta Square in Rimini opened just a few days ago but is already a case. In front of Castel Sismondo, in fact, a veil of water about five centimeters deep has been created that, in the intentions of the city administration, is meant to evoke the moat that surrounded the Renaissance fortress in ancient times. And there has been no shortage of criticism, which is divided into two strands: on the one hand, those who dispute the operation itself and the changes it has made to the square, and on the other hand, those who point the finger at the degradation caused by those who mistook the water floor for an aquapark, so much so that from the first hours many residents and tourists stormed Malatesta Square, with children bathing (some with diapers on), dogs splashing around in it, people with feet soaking and a whole variety of behaviors that would be banned in any city.

However, the first criticisms go back a long way: underneath Piazza Malatesta there is in fact an important archaeological stratification that can tell the story of the moat of Castel Sismondo, whose design is attributed to Filippo Brunelleschi. Under the concrete, said Giovanni Rimondini, president of the “Rimini City of Art” Association, “there are 15 meters of sloping floors, technically called ’shoes’ and ’countershoes,’ theequivalent of a two-story building above the ground one, a canyon, or as Roberto Valturio, who had seen it excavated and walled up, writes, the moat was ’like the pyramids’ or ’like the banks of a river.’ It was the moat that was the real novelty of Castel Sismondo.” According to Rimondini, the city administration should rather have worked on this archaeological emergence to enhance it and thus promote the image of “Rimini city of the Renaissance” where “three generations of perspective artists” (Filippo Brunelleschi, Leon Battista Alberti and Filippo Brunelleschi) worked.

In recent months, Italia Nostra had also been very critical: “In our opinion, the biggest mistake of this operation, from which also derives the complete disregard for the artistic and archaeological heritage that the square preserves,” wrote the association’s Rimini section, was “to build an artificial space without considering its past history and its future daily vitality only threatens its very existence.” Moreover, again according to Italia Nostra, another limitation of the operation was “the failure to involve the community of citizens in the transformation processes of such a strategic part for Rimini.” Italia Nostra had also filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office stating that “the confrontation on historical and identity places of the city, should go through confrontation and accurate evaluations, supported by historians, archaeologists and architects specialized in urban design and restoration.” And before that, back in August 2020, to stop the work Italia Nostra had written a letter to the minister of culture, Dario Franceschini, recalling that the area in front of Castel Sismondo is affected by a building ban dating back to 1915 and a 1991 ministerial decree extending protection to the subsoil, which is of “particularly important archaeological interest because it preserves the layout of the late-imperial walls of the Roman city, other ancient settlement remains and the structures of the defensive moat of the fortress.” However, following the complaints (one also came later from an opposition councilor, Gioenzo Renzi), engineer Chiara Fravisini, manager of the public building and urban quality sector, reported last July 2 at City Hall during the work of the joint culture and control committees that “everything that has been realized in Malatesta Square has been agreed and authorized by the competent superintendence,” since the new structure (the water veil is supported by a reinforced concrete structure laid on an excavation four meters deep) does not go to interfere with the archaeological traces. The associations are now waiting for the public prosecutor’s office to rule.

And then, as mentioned, there is the issue of theuse of the water plane: after the inauguration many people, probably unaware that in Rimini (and, moreover, only a few hundred meters away from Malatesta Square) there is an entire Adriatic Sea where they can have fun with water, have taken to bathing or cooling off in the middle of Malatesta Square, which has become a kind of swimming pool, complete with people in bathing suits, rows of flip-flops on the edge, splashing and splashing around. And many Rimini residents, concerned a little about the degradation that such a situation calls, a little about the hygienic problems that the use of the veil of water as a swimming pool entails, have expressed their protests en masse on city groups but also on the City Council’s social channels. So much so that the administration had to issue a statement with the rules to be followed for the “use” of the water surface in Malatesta Square. “In the fall and winter period, for example,” the note reads, "the space will not be able to have the same use as in the months with the milder climate, whose extraordinary potential is precisely demonstrated in these very first days of the opening of the new Malatesta Square, literally taken by storm by children and even adults. For the record, the water plane is perfectly walkable and bikeable when the ’water’ mode is turned off.

“During spring and summer,” the City of Rimini explains, “in the water veil the immersion of animals is forbidden, the passage of vehicles of any kind (e.g., bicycles, scooters, etc.) is prohibited, and cleaning or washing of anything is not possible.” Anyway, in the coming days, the administration concludes, rules for use will be posted near the plan. Will they be respected?

Pictured: the new Malatesta Square. Photo by Fabio Massaccesi

Rimini, the new Malatesta Square where you can splash in the water is already a case

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