FLORENCE, ITALY – This is the executive summary and recommendations of the report Joint UNESCO World Heritage Centre – ICOMOS, adivsory mission to the world heritage site of the historic centre of Florence, Italy. You can also download the full 2017 UNESCO report.
Maintaining a balance between tourism and sustaining other aspects and functions of the life of the historic City of Florence as a metropolitan centre is a matter of constant negotiation between competing interests,, in which every decision can have wider consequences.. The proposed new airport runway and high – speed rail link will not, in the mission’s opinion, cause harm to the OUV of the property (indeed the former has benefits for the setting of two of the (separately inscribed) Medici villas), but will change the number and potentially the type of visitors to the city.
The proposed new airport runway and high – speed rail link will not, in the mission’s opinion, cause harm to the OUV of the property (indeed the former has benefits for the setting of two of the (separately inscribed) Medici villas, but will change the number and potentially the type of visitors to the city.
Great progress has been made in implementing a sustainable movement strategy for the historic centre, with the introduction of the first tram line , limitations on car use, greater pedestrianisation of the public realm , and electric vehicles.. Completion of the strategic tram network, in stages around the Viali di Circonvallazione , and with a loop to the Piazza San Marco early in the programme, is desirable, taking large motor buses out of the centre and contributing to the tourism management strategy. However, in the miss ion’s opinion an aspiration for an underground tram line across the historic centre ( but not currently in any programme) should be decisively abandoned, because of risks of subsidence,, the impact of stations, and conflict with a strategy of encouraging tourists to take alternative pathways to and from the centre.
The mission considered the possibility of a car park under the Piazza Brunelleschi against this background of progress in transforming the environment of the historic centre. While, if technical issues can be resolved, the project (including replacing a redundant university laboratory) might be achieved with limited harm to the OUV of the property,, creating public car parks in the historic centre accessed other than directly from the Viali di Circonvallazione was contrary to the content, trend and benefits of current policy. Proposals (including this one) should be firmly resisted, in line with City policy, despite the special pleading that will inevitably be associated with them .
In the Mission’s view the City’s underground waste containers represent a very significant improvement over the previous (and standard) approach of surface level bins . The system is as neat and unobtrusive as its function permits. The archaeological sampling of the city through the excavation of the pits is in effect a research project delivering useful results.
The City’s action, after the removal of the Courts, has secured appropriate new uses for the vacated buildings, setting an example in bringing their own staff into historic buildings in the centre, while securing investment in and a new public – facing use for a monumental building on terms in which the City retains the long – term interest in the building. The City is taking an active role in securing new uses, more rapidly than was the case with the Murate complex, and progres s is being made to secure a new use for former convent of Sant’Orsola. While overall the condition of the historic fabric is good, a systematic approach to identifying and securing the future of unused and deteriorating buildings that make a contribution to OUV could be helpful, alongside the very useful HECO initiative aimed at encouraging appropriate repair being piloted by the site management..
The 2016 revision of the Management Plan is commendably strategic, based on extensive consultation. It would be improved (at the next review) by identifying more clearly how the Outstanding Universal Value is expressed through the physical and social fabric. Heritage Impact Assessment should be embedded as a process in managing the city, and particularly for infrastructure projects, should begin when concepts are first suggested and be developed through and influence all subsequent stages of project development.
The mission supported the City’s approach to its emerging tourist strategy,, and ongoing initiatives to spread the load beyond the small core area where the dominance of tourism is tending to erode the living character and culture of the city. The sequence of city regulations (2010-17) illustrates how difficult it can be to address issues which face not only Florence but many other heavily – visited historic cities. The city is to be commended for its courage and determination to do so, providing an example from which others may learn.
UNESCO recommend:
- Consider the consequences of improved high – speed rail and airport capacity in developing its tourist strategy, particularly the risk of increasing, both absolutely and in proportion, the number of short – stay visitors.
- Definitively abandon the concept of a tramway link under the city core, both because of the risks it would pose to the historic fabric and archaeology, and because a fast link direct to the centre would be incompatible with the emerging visitor strategy of s preading th e load.
- A s a general principle, not allow the creation of any more public car parks in the historic centre accessed other than directly from the Viali di Circonvallazione, on the grounds that such proposals are in conflict with the City’s commendable sustainable movement strategy for the historic centre; and specifically to reject the proposal for the Piazza Brunelleschi.
- Specifically develop and maintain a register of buildings (regardless of ownership) that contribute to the OUV of the city, but are at risk as a result of under – use and decay, as a basis for encouraging action by both public and private owners.
- At the next review of the management plan, identify more clearly how the Outstanding Universal Value is expressed through the physical and social fabric, defining the attributes of the site which carry its Outstanding Universal Value .
- Heritage Impact Assessment informed by the Guidance on Heritage Impact Assessments for Cultural World Heritage Properties (IICOMOS, 2011) be embedded as a process in managing the city. For infrastructure projects, it should begin when concepts are first suggested, with a correspondingly strategic assessment of their potential impacts (both direct and consequential ) on cultural heritage, particularly OUV HIA should then be developed and applied through options appraisal and all subsequent stages of project development.
The historic centre of Florence was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1982 . The boundary, drawn tightly around the edge of the formerly walled centre of the city, was amended by the addition of an extensive buffer zone in 2015.
Since inscription, the World Heritage Committee has considered two potential threats to the property, a terrorist car bomb in the centre, near the Uffizi (1993), and the potential impact of high tension power lines on the site’s setting (1998).
The State Party of Italy invited the 2017 ICOMOS Advisory Mission primarily to assess and advise on planned infrastructure projects within the World Heritage property and its buffer zone, most of which concern transport to the city and movement within it.
In summary, major projects include the enlargement of the airport, the completion of the High – Speed Train line ultimately connecting Naples to Milan via Florence and Rome, the construction of tramway lines in and around the historic centre, the management of people and motor vehicles within it , waste management within the historic centre, and the re – use of public buildings. Advice was specifically sought on the process of preparing Heritage Impact Assessments.
The proposed airport expansion would also affect positively the setting of two of the Medici Villas and Gardens in Tuscany, inscribed on the List in 2013.
UNESCO, 2017
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