Dalle buone prassi di manutenzione alla conservazione programmata: l’esperienza delle mura veneziane di Bergamo

The Venetian fortress of Bergamo is a well-known landmark of the city. It stretches across almost 5 kilometres and is almost entirely preserved, so that, in 2017, its historical importance was recognized worldwide by its inscription in the UNESCO World Heritage List. In 2015, the Municipality of Bergamo, the University of Bergamo, and the volunteer organization Orobicambiente joined forces to set up and adopt a new strategy for its conservation. After extensive research, a conservation plan proposal was drafted in 2019, following the guidelines approved by the Lombardy region. These guidelines were tailored specifically to the conservation and management goals of the Venetian fortress of Bergamo. The unique features of the structure led to a simplification of the documentation proposed in the guidelines. It also suggested including actions that go beyond the scope of routine maintenance but are recurring challenges, such as consolidation of the top portions of the walls and of bastion edges. The proposal has been recently updated after four years, both in terms of content and form. The documentation here presented, initially developed as text documents, has now been complemented by the proposal of a digital archive managed within a GIS environment. Moreover, based on the experience gained during the period 2019-2023, the conservation program was deeply revised. The main changes to the plan's content involved implementing optimized procedures developed during the strengthening work on the Valverde bastion.