Back in June of last year we published an article (here) about work starting on the Palazzo Pancrazi
In that article we mentioned that the traditional Tuscan red tiles covering the roofs of Barga were under threat because of a mixture of lack of maintenance, extreme weather conditions and the recent earth tremours all conspiring with the forces of gravity to bring the tiles to the ground. One of those building affected had been the Town Hall – The Palazzo Pancrazi with the overhanging “Gronde” showing visible signs of buckling and sagging.
A printed sheet was put through most of the doors in Barga Vecchia informing people that the following day work would start on scaffolding around Palazzo Pancrazi.
The following morning like clockwork workmen arrived and started erecting scaffolding which over the next couple of weeks completely covered Palazzo Pancrazi allowing workers to start repairing the roof of the building which was in a dangerous condition.
According to the printed sheet “Comune Informa” that work would actually start in the second half of the month of August 2012.
The official note from the Comune went on to apologise for the disruption to the residents, commercial enterprises and visitors to Barga caused by the work on the Palazzo but the condition of the roof and overhanging guttering was such that an immediate intervention was necessary.
We ended the article with the line – “No solid news was then available on just how long the refurbishment will actually take, but considering the size of the Palazzo Pancrazzi it was likely that the scaffolding will be still standing for a few weeks yet. – Watch this space.”
Since then a lot more has happened with more strong earth tremors which caused the more or less complete evacuation of Barga Vecchia for 24 hours in January and then the discovery over the following couple of weeks of some of the older palazzo’s in the city showing signs of damage with cracks and subsidence making them dangerous for their residents and people living nearby.
The library was one of those buildings affected and was shut and all the books gradually moved to a safer position outside the centro storico.
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The scaffolding which has been covering the Palazzo Pancrazi – the town hall has now been joined by much more metal work and poles as scaffolding has been erected on the palazzo overlooking Piazza Garibaldi (article here) and the even larger Palazzo Biondi (article here) which overlooks the two bridges which divides Barga Vecchia from Barga Giardino.
It has to be said that all of this hastily erected metal work is there to protect people passing below and so far none of it is for actual work being done on the damaged buildings but hopefully as the terrible weather we have been suffering from this winter has now passed and work can begin on sorting out some of the structural problems besetting Barga Vecchia.
As for a time span or a calendar on just how long before the buildings, piazzas and palazzi are once more returned to their original splendour, is at the moment, anybodies guess but with the tourist season not that far away in the distance, we can only hope.
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