IT IS NECESSARY TO ACT TO ‘ISOLATE’ ST MARK’S BASILICA AND THE SQUARE FROM THE HIGH TIDES!

The primo procuratore di San Marco Carlo Alberto Tesserin met the new president of the Provveditorato alle opere pubbliche Roberto Linetti in recent days asking for help in implementing the project to waterproof the narthex in the basilica. Indeed, even with the recent modest high tide of 13 January, a little more than 100 cm above average sea level, the precious mosaic paving in the basilica and the square itself were flooded. Tesserin himself recently reminded the local press that ‘it is not acceptable that when the mobile barriers begin to rise, between 110 and 115 centimetres above the average sea level, the narthex in St Mark’s Basilica will continue to be submerged by water, because in this part of the city and in the narthex in particular, it goes under at just 65 centimetres’. So Tesserin insists, relaunching the project to waterproof the narthex drawn up by the architect Piana and the engineer Paolo Campostrini: the tests already made show that it is feasible. The project, also presented in December at the Hotel Luna Baglioni with the participation of the Associazione Piazza San Marco, consists of isolating the exit channels and rainwater ducts with valves, as in the case of high tides these bring water in from the drains. In this way at least twenty centimetres would be recovered, awaiting the works to isolate the surface of the square. This means reducing the high tides inside the basilica by 70%. It is precisely on the works to make St Mark’s Square safe also from medium-low tides that the association intends urging the authorities concerned, working also with the Procuratia di San Marco for the good of the square and its extraordinary architectural beauty.