Work on Villa Mercede will begin by the end of the year, perhaps
The works to renovate and secure the surrounding wall of Villa Mercede, on the side of via dei Marrucini in San Lorenzo, will not begin before December 2022. Perhaps even January 2023. The news was given to the culture commission on 25 May by the Capitoline Superintendency.
This is very bad news, because this means that the construction site would start exactly four years after the collapse, provided that no new problems arise. Because in mid-December 2021 the councilor for the environment of the second municipality, Rino Fabiano, had been quite optimistic, hoping for the start of the works for January 2022: “The Superintendence was entrusted with the tender as per the regulation – he told RomaToday five months ago -, the construction site was assigned almost a year ago to the company that took possession of the works, but everything is going slowly. From what we know, however, it seems that in January 2022 the scaffolding that we have seen empty for 8 months will finally be populated by the workers and the work will be completed.”
Not at all. In all this time nothing has been done by the Superintendency, as Fabiano again confirms: “They are going ahead with an internal buck-passing exercise – he explains – despite the responsibility they would have towards the mayor and the city. They are making fun of us. To date they have not carried out any tender. And they are also stuck on the F9 tower of the Aurelian Walls, at Largo degli Anamari, another critical point”. The barriers went up there without the knowledge of the local institutions at the beginning of the year, but no type of work has been done. They protect them, they create degradation and that’s it.
“Gualtieri has a problem in Rome, the Superintendence and its functioning. This issue must be addressed” is the bitter consideration of the municipal councilor. He adds: “The summer tender involving Villa Mercede – he concludes – will exploit the playground area of the villa, one of the few areas on which we manage to maintain high attention, but it is actually contradictory that we do not proceed with the renovation and events do.”
“I wanted to convene the Superintendency into the commission – says the president of the culture commission Lucrezia Colmayer – precisely to take the problem back into hand and ensure that there is coordination between the municipality and the Superintendence, given that the problem has afflicted the territory for some time. We have urged the responsible body to carry out the procedures, reducing the time as much as possible to free San Lorenzo”.
Citizens are also tired of waiting. Also on May 25th, neighborhood committees and associations met to unite in the fight for the reopening of the villa: “It is a very important space for the neighborhood – says Barbara from the neighborhood committee – and we miss it. This is why we decided to unite forces and express all the anger at the buck-passing taking place on Villa Mercede. If we have to implement further forms of protest, we will do so in the appropriate places”.
