THE PROJECT

Following the metric survey of the edifice, including the historical research taken from Venetian archives and libraries and the non-invasive tests carried out, the definitive decision can finally be made to start work on St Mark’s Square Clock Tower.

The City Council has declared the site to be zoned neither as residential nor as museum applicable. Limited access will be allowed for visits, by appointment, to study-research groups.

As for the type of intervention to be chosen, it must be said that the documented research carried out has given useful input as to the amount and type of intervention the tower has undergone up till now. The research has made it possible to follow some kind of historical outline of works orchestrated from the middle of the 1700s up until 130 years ago.

Even though caution must always be the by-word in these cases, the non-invasive checks, but most of all the survey, seem to have confirmed the above conclusions. It is now possible to distinguish between the older and the newer interventions both of which are in need of further work.

The project identified for the Clock Tower today will be a real act of conservation.

The interior of the tower will be restored. Everything from the wooden floors and ceilings to the plastering of walls and filling in of gaps and fissures in terrazzo flooring. The stairwells will be transformed into fire-safe zones, two new bathrooms will be added and old sewerage pipes will be checked. Nineteenth century door and window frames will be restored.

As for the tower’s exterior, works will include the initial consolidation of decorative features (the paint, plaster and stone ornamentation) to the washing, soaking and eventual precision micro-sanding. Anti-algae treatment will be carried out to prevent metal erosion caused by the aforesaid. A lime-based binder will be used to plaster stones and the rough-cast exterior. Elements beyond a state of repair will be removed without intervention or substitution. Some stone, metal or paint finishes will be integrated.

Every phase of the restoration will be described and added to the project’s graphic attachments.

The executive project being put into effect includes the output of information on a magnetic software system in which every stage of the restoration will be described from it’s past intervention, present state, to future restructuring.

New regulations added to Law 109 quater and relative rules has made it necessary to revise the first phase of the definitive project.