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SAVE SANT’AMBROGIO!
dec 12
A PERSONAL APPEAL BY MAESTRO PLACIDO DOMINGO, PRESIDENT OF EUROPA NOSTRA
(published in the leading Italian daily "Corriere della Sera" on 9 December 2012)
I love Milan as Stendhal and many others did, who have grasped its discreet poetry. Why do I love this city? For La Scala, of course, where I had the immense pleasure of performing during the last forty years of my life. But also for la Galleria and also the Duomo! And of course, for its churches: from San Maurizio with its magnificent frescoes, to St. Ambrose, with its portico and the altar of unparalleled beauty, the shrine of San Vittore in Ciel d'Oro, and the crypt with the preserved bodies of Ambrose, Gervase and Protaso. There is so much history in those places it could give people vertigo.
I love Milan and always enjoy going back there. Not only for music, art and history, but also for the beautiful atmosphere of its historic center : trams still rattling through the streets paved with cobblestones, its bars teeming with busy people (because they always seem to run, these Milanesi! ) but still cheerful and polite, despite the difficult times that we are living in.
For me, no doubt, Milan is above all related to the very special emotion of the opening evening at La Scala! A musical feast, but also a true feast for the citizens of Milan, which falls precisely on December 7, the feast of St. Ambrose. This “rendez-vous” unfolds, in turn, a highly participatory celebration, which is the highest expression of the cultural tradition of Milan.
I now hear that the place which is the symbol of Milan, dedicated to the ongoing celebration of the Patron Saint of this city – the Piazza Sant'Ambrogio with its splendid Basilica – has been transformed into a massive construction site for a five-storey underground parking for 570 cars. This can not be true! Car parks are certainly useful. But not in historic city centres, not in the heart of Romanic Milan, on the site of Ambrose and Augustine, in whose foundations are conserved the remains of the early martyrs. Transforming this “piazza” into a roof of the underground garage seems to me to be hardly compatible with the historical and artistic heritage of this place; a place that the culture of the world admires and wants to see preserved in its integrity. Perhaps not everyone is aware of the fact that the Basilica of St. Ambrose is also well known in the rest of the world and even that in 1929 a replica of this Basilica (though not very “fidèle” to its original) was built on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles.
Europa Nostra, the Voice of Cultural Heritage in Europe, of which I have the honour to be President, has endorsed an appeal to the Mayor of Milan in support of the "cry of pain" launched by Italia Nostra in connection with the construction of this parking. I hope that those who have responsibility for making decisions have the courage, for the sake of us all, to suspend those works and reconsider the entire project with the aim to allow also future generations to enjoy this magical corner of Milan.
Plácido Domingo
IN THE MEDIA
Corriere della Sera
Page 1 Page 7
DOCUMENTS
Stop the car park in Piazza Sant'Ambrogio in Milan. Italia Nostra Appeal in English
Fermiamo il parcheggio di Piazza Sant'Ambrogio, Milano. Italia Nostra Appeal in Italian
RELATED NEWS
Italia Nostra appeals to stop car park under oldest church in Milan
1 November 2011
RELATED WEBSITES
Appello a Pisapia: ferma S.Ambrogio!
Italia Nostra
Impact assessment of the project (in Italian)
Salva la Piazza
Photos: Plácido Domingo, Denis de Kergorlay and Sneška Quaedvlieg - Mihailović, President, Executive President and Secretary General of Europa Nostra at the Europa Nostra General Assembly in Amsterdam, 11 June 2011. CC-BY-SA Laurie Neale.
Construction site in Piazza Sant'Ambrogio in Milan. Rossana Bettinelli
Royce Hall, main building of University of California, Los Angeles. CC-BY-SA Aegis Maelstrom
Piazza Sant'Ambrogio, Milan. CC-BY-SA Marco Bonavoglia