Italian Culture Minister Dario
Franceschini on Tuesday inaugurated the restored first-floor
rooms of the Norman Svevo Castle in the Puglia regional capital
of Bari ahead of their opening to the public shortly.
The space, which until recently hosted the offices of the
Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, will
soon be used to display contemporary artworks and archaeological
remains and as a space for concerts, debates and international
congresses.
The Superintendent's offices have been transferred to the
monumental complex of Santa Chiara, which has also just been
restored.
The combined restoration project cost a total of 8 million
euros.
The new space is set to make the Svevo (Swabian) Castle a
strong competitor to Castel del Monte, a World Heritage Site in
the nearby town of Andria and currently the number two visitor
attraction in Puglia despite its limited space.
"We will offer more culture and with the opening of a second
floor we aim to double visitor numbers," said Svevo Castle
director Rosa Mezzina.
However, eight surveillance staff members need to be assigned
to the new rooms before they can open and the space must first
come under the formal auspices of the Pugliese museum network,
which will organise the cultural initiatives there.
These include an exhibition in one of the monumental
reception rooms of works from the collection of local collector
Angelo Baldassarre, centering on work from the 1960s and 1970s
by American artists including Joe Baldessari, Robert Barry, Mel
Bochner, Bruce Boice, Donald Judd, Joseph Kosuth, Sol Lewitt,
Robert Mangold, Bruce Neumann, Richard Tuttle and Andy Warhol.
Smaller rooms already contain the permanent displays of
pottery uncovered during excavations at the castle, stonemasonry
including including capitals and sculptures, coins, jewellery
and fabrics.
The ground floor, which is already a museum space, hosts the
multimedia room, gypsotheque, Sveva room currently hosting an
exhibition on the Lecce tenor Tito Schipa, central courtyard and
archaeological remains below.
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