Stories of Culture
In the heart of Rho, where fifty years ago the Diana de Silva Cosmétiques company once stood, the Bracco Group built a contemporary theater dedicated to Roberto de Silva, entrepreneur and art enthusiast
Historic fountains in the cities of Genoa, Naples, Rome, Palermo and Varese, together with the pool at Villa Necchi Campiglio in Milan, a part of the FAI (Italian National Trust) patrimony. Between 1999 and 2002, major restorations by the Bracco Group returned to their original splendor this series of Italian monuments left to the ravages of time, but especially to the merciless effects of smog and the harmfulness of those pollutants that, not to mention the acts of vandalism, degrade the real and true heritage of humanity.
The “Fontanevive” (Living Fountains) project began in Genoa, in Piazza Marsala to be precise, with the restoration of the 16th century work by Giovanni Giacomo della Porta and Nicolò della Corte, as well as the fountain on Via Luccoli, created in the 1700s by an unknown artist. Following Genoa, Bracco’s restorers migrated South to safeguard a magnificent monument in the city of Naples – the Baroque fountain of Sellaria – commissioned by Viceroy Inigo Vélez de Guevara of Onate. The monument, built in 1650 and then placed in Piazza della Sellaria, from which it takes its name, was moved in 1903 to the small square Grande Archivio. The fountain, located outside and therefore in very poor condition, posed a real challenge to the restoration efforts being carried out by the Superintendence for Environmental and Architectural Heritage of Naples and its Provinces.
Palermo was another stop on this rehabilitation tour, which in 2002 revived the Triton Fountain (or Glauco) located in Villa Trabia delle Terre rosse. It was a difficult task seeing as the monument suffered acts of vandalism even during the process. Nonetheless, these failed to stop the efforts of the skilled restorers who were able to bring back the light of the sculpture carved by Filippo Pennino in 1779 and which, as pointed out by Maria Falgares from Italia Nostra, “was still part of a beautiful park at end of the 1800s.”
Finally, we have the Acqua Vergine Fountain of the Palazzina di Pio IV in Rome, one of the city’s loveliest, commissioned in 1550/1555 by Pope Julius III at the corner of the new access road to his suburban residence, the famous Villa Giulia. The monument was donated by Pope Pius IV, along with the villa opposite on Via Flaminia to his grandchildren Federico and Carlo Borromeo.
“Fontanevive” remains today one of the most ambitious national projects carried out by Bracco, which has always dedicated special attention to the culture of restoring and of preserving Italy’s artistic heritage.
