A private partner is being sought in Europe to help breathe new life into the San Domenico complex, a 14th-century former convent that was used as a jail until 1993 in San Gimignano near the Tuscan city of Siena.
The call for proposals was made by the city council and the Tuscan regional government, which became owners of the complex after the cost-free transfer from state-owned property holdings.
The call will run through May 31 and calls for a 22.3-million-euro investment for the restoration of the complex, which encompasses about 10% of the historical center of San Gimignano.
The concession will last 70 years.
The project calls for up to a third of the buildings potentially being used as lodgings and the other two thirds as spaces for cultural activities such as museums, exhibition and conference halls as well as routes focusing on archaeological and landscape heritage. There will be space set aside for performance activities and for highlighting territorial identity and Tuscan food and self-care products.
The proposal will be judged on the basis of both the project proposal and its management as well as the solidity of the financial investment plan.
"This is an almost 30-year dream for San Gimignano residents that is beginning to come true. We ask the market and the private entrepreneurial world to work with this dream and this challenge: to make what was a place of exclusion for centuries into a place for the highest possible inclusion," stressed San Gimignano Mayor Giacomo Bassi in presenting the call for proposals to the public. "This is a large culture-related challenge to restore places that were closed for centuries to the public," Deputy Regional Governor Monica Barni said, who is tasked with cultural matters.
She then underscored the work that led to the creating of the project and the EU-wide call for proposals, saying it was "a long and challenging journey that developed through dialogue between the regional government, the town council and all the institutions involved. In the end, what we are presenting is the first case of state-owned property being transferred to local and regional authorities."
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