Like every year, the FAI (Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano) is proposing the autumn initiative to open to the public a rich artistic and natural heritage that is not always known or accessible, throughout the country. On Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 October 2024, 700 places can be visited in 360 Italian cities including, in addition to some already frequented sites, hidden, unknown or little-valued venues, on which the spotlight will be turned on for a weekend.
Domus has selected some must-see places for this occasion, both for an urban cultural immersion and for an “out of town” in nature. From works of architecture that are almost always “sealed” (Villa Rosebery, Villino Favaloro), little-known (Villa Rey) or famous (especially among connoisseurs of the subject: Villa Necchi Campiglio, Tomba Brion) and visitable, to striking landscapes where one can abandon oneself to the contemplation of “natural architecture” (Teatro dei Calanchi) or embark on an experiential journey, either edenic (Bosco di San Francesco) or sulphurous (Lago d'Averno) as the case may be.
FAI Days: 8 unmissable Italian architectures you can visit this weekend
From Piedmont to Sicily, amidst well-known works and hidden gems, a selection of places that can be visited on 12 and 13 October 2024 as part of the Fai initiative to enhance Italy's cultural and natural heritage.
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- Chiara Testoni
- 11 October 2024
Opening image: Courtesy FAI. Foto © Luca Chiaudano
Situated on the eastern edge of the Turin hills, the Villa constitutes one of the oldest and most imposing “vineyards” that had been built around the city since the early 17th century. In 1933, stripped of its fixed furnishings, the Villa was given to the City Council, which used the spaces as venues for associations, including the ASI-Automotoclub storico Italiano, closely linked to Turin's automobile industry.
Dating back to the early 19th century, the Casina Borbonica complex with its ceremonial rooms and the Grande Foresteria is set in a park where Mediterranean flora dialogues with an English garden. The site, owned by the Presidency of the Republic, is usually closed to the public.
Built between 1889 and 1901 to a design by G. B. Basile and subsequently modified between 1913 and 1914 by his son Ernesto, a leading exponent of Palermo Art Nouveau and one of the protagonists of Art Nouveau in Europe, the little villa is a jewel conceived to meet the residential needs of the wealthy Favaloro family. In 1988, the villa was acquired by the State Property Office of the Sicilian Region, and is now home to the Digital Museum of Photography of Sicily.
The residence, surrounded by a large park with swimming pool and tennis court, belonged to a refined and enlightened family of the Lombard industrial bourgeoisie, industrious but sensitive to the "bella vita". Today it is part of the "Case Museo di Milano" circuit. In 2001, the family entrusted the Villa to the FAI to make it a place to be enjoyed thanks to the pleasant garden, numerous events and the bistro in the park.
Immersed in the Treviso countryside, the Brion Memorial (commissioned by Onorina Brion Tomasin in memory of her late husband, and subsequently given by the family to FAI) with its concrete volumes, distributed among green lawns marked by canals with pools covered with water lilies, weaves a close dialogue with Nature as an element of memory sublimation.
Lake Avernus is a lake located in the crater of a dormant volcano near the archaeological site of Cumae. According to Greco-Roman mythology, it was one of the entrances to the Underworld and the earthly dwelling of Lucifer.
The Teatro dei Calanchi is a suggestive natural amphitheatre located in the calanques of Pisticci. Inaugurated in 2016, it was conceived by the director Daniele Onorati and designed as a place to combine cultural production and the conservation and enhancement of the territory. It is a work of land art that uses the unique morphology of the site as a scenic environment for outdoor performances.
A journey through history across 64 hectares of nature recovered by the FAI, including woodlands and cultivated fields, meadows and olive groves, from the remains of a microcosm inhabited by nuns between the 13th and 14th centuries to Michelangelo Pistoletto's work ‘Terzo Paradiso’ (Third Paradise): 121 olive trees arranged in double rows to form three circular tangent elements, with a larger one in the centre, with a 12-metre-high pole symbolising the (salvific?) union between heaven and earth.