ICOMOS ISC20C HERITAGE ALERT
November 20, 2020
ICOMOS Heritage Alert for the Stadio Artemio Franchi (Pier
Luigi Nervi, 1929-31) in Florence, Italy
Pier Luigi Nervi, Drawing of the Marathon Tower, seen from the inside of the stadium, 1932. Parma, CSAC
0.0 Executive Summary
The ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on 20th Century Heritage (ISC20C), in
collaboration with the Pier Luigi Nervi Project Association, are issuing this Heritage Alert
for the Stadio Artemio Franchi (Pier Luigi Nervi, 1929-31) in Florence, Italy. The Stadio
Artemio Franchi is an early and important work of Italian engineer and builder Pier Luigi
Nervi and is under imminent threat of destruction due to plans by the Municipality of
Florence and the Fiorentina football club to build a new stadium on its site. Recent
legislation by the Italian government that relax heritage and conservation requirements are
enabling these plans to move forward. ICOMOS and the Pier Luigi Nervi Project
Association are seeking an immediate halt to these plans and request that a full study be
conducted to determine the existing stadium’s actual condition and what change is
necessary for its continued viability as a cultural and athletics venue.
1.0 Identity of Building/Artifact/Object/Place*
The Stadio Artemio Franchi (Original name: Stadio Giovanni Berta) is located on the Viale
Manfredo Fanti, between the Viale Ferruccio Valcareggi and the Viale Manfredo Fanti in
the Campo di Marte neighborhood in Florence, Italy. It is a 43,000-spectator capacity
stadium, home of the Fiorentina football club.
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Listing and current protection
In 2020 the Franchi stadium was declared of cultural interest pursuant to Article 10(1) of
Legislative Decree No. 42 of 22 January 2004 as amended (Codice dei beni culturali e del
paesaggio - Code of Cultural Heritage and Landscape, hereinafter “Cultural Heritage
Code”) and declared of cultural and historical significance on the 22nd of May, 2020.
However, the recent “stadium unblocking” legislation passed by the Italian parliament
earlier this year (Article 55-bis of Law Decree no. 76 of 16 July 2020) specifically exempts
sporting facilities from the strict requirements of the Cultural Heritage Code and gives wide
latitude to the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (“MiBACT”) to determine what
constitutes “historical value” and provides far more relaxed standards—including the
preservation of small fragments of the original, or even reproductions—for meeting any
remaining requirements. This legislation threatens all sports facilities of historic value in
Italy, but appears to have been passed in concert with the city’s efforts to facilitate a new
stadium on the Stadio Franchi site.
View of the Torre di Maratona from inside the Stadium, ©Matteo Cirenei, 2018
2.0 Statement of Significance and History
The Stadio was designed and constructed by Pier Luigi Nervi and his contracting firms
Nervi & Nebbiosi (west grandstand) and Nervi & Bartoli (east stand) between 1929 and
1930. It was commissioned by the owner of the Fiorentina club at the time, the Florentine
aristocrat and sports patron Luigi Ridolfi Vay da Verrazzano, in 1926. Ridolfi, a supporter
of Mussolini, named the stadium after a fascist martyr, Giovanni Berta. It was designed to
host athletic events in addition to football matches, and Nervi & Nebbiosi built the west
grandstand, with a cantilevered concrete roof to shelter football and athletics spectators
from rain and the afternoon sun, in 1930-31. Fiorentina’s rising fortunes demanded even
greater capacity, however, and Nervi—with his new construction partner, Giovanni Bartoli,
designed and built the east, north, and south grandstands in 1931-32. While these lacked
the soaring roof of the original structure, Nervi solved a nagging circulation problem in the
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second project, using dramatic, helical staircases to bring fans in from the top of the
stands, allowing them to gradually fill the seats from the bottom up and eliminating the
congestion that came with bringing them in from the bottom, where the most popular seats
were taken by the first spectators to arrive.
External view of the Stadium shortly after its completion, © Ferdinando Barsotti, 1932
The stadium has served as the home of Fiorentina ever since, though it has also hosted
the Italian national team for international matches, the national rugby team for
internationals, and the FIFA World Cup in 1934 and 1990. It has also been the site of
major rock concerts. Renovations for the 1990 World Cup included demolition of the
original athletics track and the installation of additional seats; other work that has
obscured, but not demolished, original fabric includes a metal ceiling under the
cantilevered roof including two extensions that follow its profile to the north and south, and
security fencing in the stands and around the perimeter. The stadium is in good condition,
having been maintained and in use almost continuously since its opening, and Nervi’s
design intent is faithfully maintained throughout, although some elements are hidden from
view by these additions. The stadium was renamed, for a former President of the Italian
Football Federation, Artemio Franchi, in 1991.
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3.0 Description (History and Technology)
3.1 Physical Description
The Stadio is a reinforced concrete frame with a single story of stepped concrete seating
in four major parts: the 1930 grandstand with cantilevered roof and a façade, not by Nervi
but important for historic reasons, designed in a fascist style by the city architects of
Florence contemporaneous with the Nervi structure; two curva structures that make the
90° transitions to the end zone seating, and the 1931 grandstand structure that wraps
around both end zones and along the stadium’s eastern edge. This latter structure
includes three original, helicoidal staircases and the 70-meter Torre Maratona.
3.2 Construction System Used
The stadium is of reinforced in situ concrete construction throughout, using moment
connections for lateral stability and heavy steel reinforcing to achieve the relatively light
forms of the cantilevered roof and helical staircases.
The grandstand under construction, unknown photographer, 1930
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3.3 Context/Setting
The Campo di Marte is now a large complex of sports facilities about 1.75km northeast of
Florence’s historic center. It was the city’s primary military grounds in the 19th and early
20th century, and Ridolfi gained permission to build on it only after political agitation by
local militants—an important aspect of the stadium’s development, as Nervi’s dynamic
forms were clever in their abstract appeal; they were interpreted as metaphors for the
Fascist government’s emphasis on strength and action (in particular by architectural critic
Pietro Maria Bardi), and as neutral, engineering forms that required elaboration from more
conservative architects to match the government’s program of stripped-down classical
architecture (the east façade). Several other athletics facilities have been added in the
vicinity of the stadium, strengthening the district’s character as Florence’s sports center;
these are all low-rise structures and have not altered the experience of seeing the stadium
emerge from the dense fabric of residential buildings surrounding it. The Torre Maratona
is also readily visible from one of Italy’s main rail lines, which passes through the Firenze
Campo di Marte station 500m to the southwest.
3.4 Social and Cultural Context
The Stadio Franchi has been an important socio-cultural element of Florence’s daily life
since its construction. As the home of the historic Fiorentina, it sees a regular influx of
fans (the Viola), and it is one of the oldest football stadia still in regular use by a top tier
team in Italy. As the largest concert venue in the city, it has hosted important festivals and
pop concerts, and it is the anchor for the structures and facilities in the Campo di Marte
that have played similar, if subsidiary, roles in the city’s sporting and entertainment lives.
Pier Luigi Nervi, drawing of the covered stand, section of the heading part, undated (1931).Private Archive of Pier Luigi Nervi, Rome
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The stadium is also evidence of the difficult cultural moment in which it was built. Florence
was an industrial and political center as well as a cultural one, and the region’s
architecture of the era shows the influence of both industrial development (factories in
Florence and Prato by Attillio Muggia, with whom Nervi apprenticed and eventually
partnered) and the developing Fascist style of stripped classicism (the Stazione Santa
Maria Novella and adjacent Palazzina Reale di Santa Maria Novella, both built in the early
1930s and designed by Giovanni Michelucci). Nervi’s concrete structure shows the clear
influence of his time with Muggia, while the cladding of the main stand on the street facade
show the requisite tropes of the Fascist style; inside the main grandstand, an interior
staircase by Nervi blends the two, combining a helical shape only achievable in concrete
with the formal qualities--symmetry, simplified detail, sharp contours, and a monumental
presence.
3.5 Materials/Fabric/Form/Function
Nervi’s designs for the grandstands, the grandstand roof, and the helicoidal staircases are
among the most poetic concrete structures of the era; they show his emerging confidence
in his abilities as a designer and a constructeur, and their publication globally proved to be
inspiring to engineers and architects throughout the world. The grandstand roof is an
essay in cantilevered form, its tapering, curved profile a constructed diagram of a ‘correct’
bending moment profile. Even more lyrical are the three functionally-driven staircases on
the east stand, which Nervi stabilized with a second helical support that intersects the stair
spiral at its center. The daring shape and thin profiles are evidence of his experimental
approach and the liberating effect that his new partnership with Bartoli had on his creative
instinct.
One of the helical staircases, ©Marco Menghi, 2018
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These graceful moments are matched, however, by a thorough approach to structural form
and detailing throughout the grandstands, where frames and moment connections are
shaped to reveal and to model ideal static forms throughout. While less celebrated, these
details and elements deserve preservation as evidence of Nervi’s encyclopedic knowledge
of static form and constructive grammar; collectively they form a rhythmic backdrop for the
more dramatic moments of the roof, stairs, and tower.
Exterior of one of the curva structures, ©Matteo Cirenei, 2018
The seating tiers have proven functional for the entire life of the stadium; Nervi calculated
sight lines carefully, and the grandstands in particular maintain an intimate relationship
with the field. The inclusion of the 500-meter track in the original scheme necessarily
placed the end zone seating at some distance from the playing field, an issue rectified by
the addition of new seating at field level in the 1990 renovation.
3.6 Aesthetic Value
Photographs and drawings of Stadio Franchi appeared in architectural journals throughout
Europe and North America on its completion. Its disciplined but evocative forms have
been imitated by stadium designers ever since, and Nervi’s ability to combine static
principles with expressive shapes would become his greatest trademark—there are direct
developments from the Stadio Franchi in his other stadium work (notably the Stadio
Flaminio in Rome, completed for the 1960 Olympic Games) and throughout his oeuvre.
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Detail of one of the helical staircases, ©Marco Menghi, 2018
Conservation Problems
The stadium has been reasonably well-maintained and has been occupied continuously
since its construction. There are weathering issues typical of exposed concrete structures
throughout, but the operations of Fiorentina have assured its day-to-day maintenance.
A recent structural study has suggested that the structure may be vulnerable to seismic
events, but the PLNP Foundation question the methodology of the report, which does not
take into account the monolithic behavior of the stadium as a whole. The study also points
out issues with stair slopes and seating distances in the curva sections that do not meet
contemporary standards for new stadium construction, however these have not prevented
the stadium from hosting top-level football matches and, in Fall, 2020, an international
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match. Finally, several additions to the stadium have been carried out that conceal
original fabric, notably the extension of the cantilevered roof on the west stand,
constructed in metal for the 2000 World Cup, however these appear to be entirely
reversible and have done little damage to the existing concrete.
The Stadio should be considered holistically, as Nervi intended--both in terms of its
structural and seismic performance, which must be understood monolithically, not as
isolated sections, and in terms of conservation, as the complex was designed as an
integrated whole. This is in line with the resolution and the requirements of national
conservation law.
While it is necessary to provide for contemporary comfort and safety standards, this
should be done with interventions that satisfy the latest requirements while preserving
the stadium’s heritage values including revealing the Stadio’s existing structure; through
additions of limited structural and/or formal consequences involving minimal loss of an
existing material, leaving largely intact this world symbol of the architectural heritage of
the 20th Century.
4.0 Source of Alert – Document prepared by Professor Thomas Leslie, AIA
4.1 References, Contacts*
ICOMOS ISC20C
● President: Gunny Harboe, FAIA, F.US/ICOMOS email: [email protected]
● Vice President (elect): Stefania Landi (Italy) email:
[email protected]Pier Luigi Nervi Research and Knowledge Management Project asbl
Rue de Vrière 9
1020 Brussels
Belgium
● Secretary General: Elisabetta Margiotta Nervi email:
[email protected]Consultants for Conservation Policies:
o Cristiana Chiorino email:
[email protected]o Ugo Carughi email:
[email protected]4.2 Groups Supporting Alert and/or Nomination, Contacts*
● FAI – Fondo Ambiente Italiano
President: Andrea Carandini
● DO.CO.MO.MO. Italia:
President: Ugo Carughi
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● Italia Nostra:
President: Ebe Giacometti
President Florence Chapter: Leonardo Rombai
● Consiglio Nazionale degli Architetti Pianificatori, Paesaggisti e Conservatori:
President: Giuseppe Cappochin
● Ordine e Fondazione degli Architetti di Firenze
President: Pier Matteo Fagnoni
4.3 Groups Potentially Against Alert Action*
● ACF Fiorentina S.p.A.
President: Rocco Commisso
● Municipality of Florence
Mayor Dario Nardella
4.4 Local, Regional, International Significance Citations*
Declaration of cultural and historical significance issued on the 22nd of May, 2020,
see Annex 1
4.5 Letters of Support, Newspaper Articles, etc.
See Folder Annex 2
4.6 Publications that describe the Work/Place, Bibliography, etc.
See Annex 3
Bibliography
● Lo stadio fiorentino, Il Bargello, n. 31, 3 agosto 1930, p. 2
● Le opere del Regime. Lo stadio fiorentino al Campo di Marte, Eclettica Gran Bazar, IV,
3, 15 marzo-15 aprile 1931, pp. 45-48
● N. I., Le opere del Regime. Il nuovo Stadio Fiorentino, La Nazione, 15 agosto 1931, p.
8
● Le opere d’ingegneria eseguite in Firenze nell’anno IX E.F., Bollettino del Sindacato
Provinciale Fascista Ingegneri di Firenze, XII, 1, 1° novembre 1931, pp. 8-16: 8-14
● Firenze. Rassegna del Comune, settembre ottobre, 1932
● Giovanni Michelucci, Lo stadio "Giovanni Berta" in Firenze dell'ingegnere Pier Luigi
Nervi, Architettura, XI, 3, marzo 1932, pp. 105-116
● G. Abraham, Le stade Giovanni Berta à Florence. Ingénieur: Pier Luigi Nervi, Le
Technique des Travaux, IX, 2, febbraio 1933, pp. 93-101
● Pier Maria Bardi, Lo Stadio di Firenze, Casabella, IV, 4, marzo 1933, p. 5
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● Mario Tinti, Giro di Firenze, Casabella, IV, 4, marzo 1933, pp 12-15
● Giuseppe Pagano, Ing. Pier Luigi Nervi, stadio Berta a Firenze, Casabella, IV, 4, marzo
1933, pp. 40-41
● Die neue Kampfbahn in Florenz. Architekt: Pier Luigi Nervi, in Bauwelt, XXIV, 14, 6
aprile 1933, pp. 1-4
● Pier Luigi Nervi, Problemi dell’architetto, Casabella, VI, 5, maggio 1933, p. 34
● The Architectural Forum International Section. Italy, Dr. Ing. Pier L. Nervi architect.
Stadium in Florence, The Architectural Forum, June, 1933, pp. 496-498.
● Public Stadium in Florence, Luigi Nervi, Architect, The Architectural Record, August,
1933, pp. 105-112
● Pier Luigi Nervi, Pensieri Sull’ingegneria, «Quadrante», 6, ottobre [1933], p. 20
● Pier Luigi Nervi, Considerazioni tecniche e costruttive sulle gradinate e pensiline per
stadi, Casabella, VI, 12, dicembre 1933, pp. 10-13
● Pier Luigi Nervi, Problemi della realizzazione architettonica, Casabella, VII, 74, febbraio
1934, pp. 2-3
● Giuseppe De Finetti, Stadi. Esempi, Tendenze, Progetti, Hoepli, Milano 1934, pp. 65-
67
● Alberto Sartoris, Gli Elementi Dell’architettura Funzionale, Hoepli, Milano 1935, pp.
311-315
● Nikolaus Pevsner, Storia Dell’architettura Europea, Laterza, Bari 1959
● Giovanni Klaus Koenig, Architettura In Toscana 1931-1968, Eri Edizione Rai, Firenze
1968
● Edoardo Detti, Firenze Scomparsa, Vallecchi, Firenze 1970
● Henry-Russell Hitchcock, L’architettura Dell’ottocento E Del Novecento, Einaudi, Torino
1971
● Biagio Furiozzi, Omaggio a Pier Luigi Nervi. Lo stadio di Firenze, in Bollettino,Degli
Ingegneri, marzo 1979, p.4
● Cesare De Seta, Architetti Italiani Del Novecento, Laterza, Roma Bari, 1982
● Luigi Del Fante, “Lo Stadio Comunale Di Firenze Di Pier Luigi Nervi,” in Tre Architetture
Degli Anni Trenta A Firenze, Fondazione Callisto Pontello, Firenze 1984
● Carlo Cresti, Architettura E Fascismo, Vallecchi, Firenze 1986
● Grazia Gobbi, Itinerari Di Firenze Moderna, Alinea, Firenze 1987
● Cesare De Seta, Architetti Italiani Del Novecento, Laterza, Roma Bari, 1987
● Giovanni Fanelli, Firenze Architettura E Città, Vallecchi, Firenze 1973 (edizione
consultata: Mandragora, Firenze 2002)
● Gianni Isola, Mauro Cozzi, Franco Nuti, Gabriella Carapelli, Edilizia In Toscana Fra Le
Due Guerre, Edifir, Firenze 1994
● Carlo Cresti, Firenze, Capitale Mancata, Electa, Milano 1995
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● Andrea Claudio Galluzzo, Carlo Battiloro, Francesco Varrasi. La Grande Vicenda Dello
Stadio Di Firenze. Firenze, Edifir, 2000.
● Ezio Godoli, a cura di, Architetture Del Novecento. La Toscana, Polistampa, Firenze
2001
● Giorgio Ciucci, Giorgio Muratore (a cura di), Storia Dell’architettura Italiana. Il primo
novecento, Electa, Milano 2004
● Sergio Polano, Guida all’architettura italiana del Novecento, Electa, Milano 2005, terza
edizione
● Claudio Greco, Pier Luigi Nervi. Dai Primi Brevetti Al Palazzo Delle Esposizioni Di
Torino, 1917-1948, Luzern, Quart Verlag, 2008
● Riccardo Dirindin, Lo Stile Dell’ingegneria. Architettura E Indentità Della Tecnica Tra Il
Primo Modernismo E Pier Luigi Nervi, Marsilio, Venezia 2010
● La Lezione Di Pier Luigi Nervi, a cura di Annalisa Trentin, Tomaso Trombetti,
Milano/Torino, Mondadori, 2010
● Pier Luigi Nervi. Architettura Come Sfida, a cura di Carlo Olmo, Cristiana Chiorino,
Cinisello Balsamo, Silvana Editoriale, 2010
● Cantiere Nervi. La Costruzione Di Un’identità. Storie, Geografie, Paralleli, a cura di
Gloria Bianchino, D.Costi, Milano, Skira, 2012
● Adrian Forty, Concrete And Culture. A Material History, London, Reaktion Books, 2012
● Claas Gefroi, Kuppeln, leicht wie Zelte. Ausgerechnet mit Pier Luigi Nervi startet der
Filmemacher Heinz Emigholz im Juni seine auf drei Filme angelegte Architekturserie
"Aufbruch der Moderne", “Baumeister”, 109 (2012), 6, pp. 10-12
● A.B. Halpern, D.P. Billington, S. Adriaenssens, The Ribbed Floor Slab Systems of Pier
Luigi Nervi, Journal Of The International Association For Shell And Spatial Structures,
2013, 54 (2-3), pp. 127-136
● Pier Luigi Nervi, Ingegneria, Architettura, Costruzione. Scritti Scelti 1922-1971, a cura
di Gabriele Neri, Torino, Città Studi, 2014
● Pier Luigi Nervi. Gli Stadi Per Il Calcio, a cura di Micaela Antonucci, Annalisa Trentin,
Tomaso Trombetti, Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2014
● A. Como, L. Smeragliuolo, "Is Architecture Moving Toward Immutable Forms And
Characters?" An Investigation At The Theoretical Level Of The Thought Of The Italian
Engineer Pier Luigi Nervi Through Texts And Images, Proceedings of the Fifth
International Congress on Construction History (Chicago 3 - 7 June 2015), Chicago,
Construction History Society of America, 2015, vol. 1, pp.491-498
● Micaela Antonucci, Sofia Nannini, Pier Luigi Nervi’s Manifattura Tabacchi in Bologna. A
Research on the Use of Concrete in Italian Industrial Architecture of the 20th Ceentury,
in Concrete 2016 – Architettura e Tecnica, (atti, Campobasso, Termoli, settembre
2016), a cura di A.Catalano, C. Sansone, Napoli, Luciano, 2016
● Micaela Antonucci, Annalisa Trentin, Tomaso Trombetti, Pier Luigi Nervi. Architetture
Per Lo Sport, Roma, Fondazione MAXXI - Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo,
2016
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● Micaela Antonucci, Campione del cemento. Pier Luigi Nervi e le architetture per lo
sport/ Master of Concrete. Pier Luigi Nervi's Sports Facilities, in: Pier Luigi Nervi.
Architetture Per Lo Sport, Roma, Fondazione MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle Arti del
XXI secolo, 2016, pp. 16 – 39
● Franz Graf, La Sauvegarde Des Oevreus De L’ingegnerie Du Xxe Siècle, Lausanne,
Presse polytechniques et universitaires romandes, 2016
● Roberto Gargiani, Alberto Bologna, The Rhetoric of Pier Luigi Nervi. Concrete and
Ferrocement Forms, Lausanne, EPFL Press, 2016
● Sergio Poretti, Nervi Che Visse Tre Volte, In «SIXXI Storia Dell’ingegneria Strutturale
In Italia», a cura di Tullia Iori e Sergio Poretti, n. 4, (Gangemi, Roma 2017), pp. 54-64
● Thomas Leslie, Beauty’s Rigor. Patterns Of Production In The Work Of Pier Luigi Nervi,
Urbana, Chiacago, Springfield University of Illinois Press, 2017
● Miguel Á. Calvo-Salve, Influences Of The Engineer Pier Luigi Nervi On The Work Of
The Architect Marcel Breuer, Proceedings Of The Sixth International Congress On
Construction History (6ICCH), (Brussels, Belgium, 9-13 July 2018), Bruxelles,
Balkema, 2018, vol. I, pp.417-424
● Thomas Leslie, "Laborious And Difficult". The Evolution Of Pier Luigi Nervi’s Hangar
Roofs (1935-41), (proceedings of the sixth International Congress on Construction
History (6ICCH), Brussels, Belgium, 9-13 July 2018), Bruxelles, Balkema, 2018, vol. I,
pp. 229-234
● Pier Luigi Nervi, Aesthetics And Technology In Building. The Twenty-First-Century
Edition, a cura di Cristiana Chiorino, Elisabetta Margiotta Nervi e Thomas Leslie,
Urbana, Chiacago, Springfield University of Illinois Press, 2018
● Micaela Antonucci, Costruire per l’industria: Pier Luigi Nervi, la Manifattura Tabacchi di
Bologna e i progetti per i Monopoli di Stato, in La Manifattura Tabacchi a Bologna.
Ricerche sull’architettura industriale contemporanea tra storia, tecnica e riuso,
Bologna, Bononia University Press, 2019, pp. 101 - 128
● Micaela Antonucci, Sofia Nannini, Through History and Technique: Pier Luigi Nervi on
Architectural Resilience, «Architectural Histories», 2019, 7, pp. 1 - 13
4.7 Time Constraints for Advocacy (immediate action/delayed action)*
Immediate
5.0 Recommended action*
5.1 Heritage Alert: International/National Distribution via ICOMOS?
International Distribution via ICOMOS
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5.2 Letter (s) to? (Provide Names and Full Contact Information)
Name Title Email
Dario Mayor of Florence
[email protected] Nardella
Sergio President of the Italian Republic
[email protected] Mattarella
Giuseppe Prime Minister of the Italian
[email protected] Conte Government
Dario Minister of Cultural Heritage and
[email protected];
Franceschini Activities and Tourism
[email protected] Lorenzo Head of Cabinet of the Minister of
[email protected];
Casini Cultural Heritage and Activities and
Tourism
[email protected] Salvatore Secretary General of the Ministry of
[email protected];
Nastasi Cultural Heritage and Activities and
Tourism
[email protected] Marco President of the Higher Council for
[email protected] D’Alberti Cultural and Landscape Heritage
Federica Director General of Archeology, Fine
[email protected];
Galloni Arts and Landscape
[email protected] Andrea Superintendent of Archeology, Fine mbac-sabap-
Pessina Arts and Landscape for the
[email protected];
metropolitan city of Florence and the
provinces of Pistoia and Prato
[email protected]5.3 ICOMOS National or Scientific Committee, or International Website Upload?
ICOMOS International Scientific Committee
5.4 Affiliated Distribution? (such as UIA/Docomomo/TICCIH)
UIA and Docomomo.
5.5 Other Actions Recommended?
To be discussed
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6.0 Desired Outcomes*
The Foundation seeks three outcomes:
1) Most urgently, halting the demolition—whole or partial—of the existing stadium and a
stop to the planning process while the historic nature of the structure is considered.
Revocation or denial of any demolition permits.
2) A full study of the structure’s stability and viability, including a seismic study that takes
into account the structure’s monolithic nature.
3) Restoration of the protections originally given to the stadium by its designation in in
May, 2020, either through EU legislation negating the recent Italian laws, a
parliamentary amendment to the “stadium unblocking” laws, or by other specifically
protecting legislation.
Ultimately, we believe that a full study of the stadium’s potential would confirm that it could
remain a viable venue for top-level football by implementing changes that respect entirely
Nervi’s original design and the stadium’s fabric—indeed, a similar study is occurring, with
great promise, for Nervi’s Stadio Flaminio in Rome.
7.0 Annexes
Annex 1: Listing Document of the Artemio Franchi Stadium
Annex 2: Letters of Support, Newspaper Articles, etc.
Annex 3: Visual Documentation and Publications
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