Post-Symposium Technical Tours

The cathedral’s construction site is located at the cathedral itself to allow workers to work on the monument. Starting from the “cesata” located on the south side of the cathedral, they go up to a maximum height of 108.5 metres. Till today, it is the centre of important activities: restoration and conservation of stone structures, installation and update of technological systems, laying of ornaments and structures from the Marble Yard, installation of stained glass, paintings, wooden and metal artefacts ensuring the efficiency of the grand original complex, arranging liturgical vestments and furnishings and contributing to ensuring the dignity of religious services and of the entire cathedral. It is on this large, complex and evocative site that the qualified workers of the Veneranda Fabbrica, often on very high scaffolding, sometimes supported by external professionals. On this extraordinary construction site bricklayers and marble workers, carpenters and blacksmiths, electricians and carpenters, restorers and operators, all led by the technicians in charge, commit their skills and experience handed down and accumulated from generation to generation. These ancient “trades” are always evolving, thanks to the contribution of new technologies, the result of continuous scientific research, of which the Veneranda Fabbrica has availed itself.
While walking around the Tiburio base, guided by the engineers who manage and survey the Cathedral’s continuous maintenance works, this Technical Tour will allow a close look at the overall process. The results of the six-monthly inspections give the opportunity of a fine tuning on the three years based structural maintenance program. Scaffolding is then assembled and the Veneranda Fabbrica’s employees can at least operate: a 637 years old commitment, progressively helped by up-to-date technology.

The Duomo is one of the most famous and complex Gothic constructions of the world. As dimensions, it is the second highest church of the world after the cathedral of Beauvais in France, and the third greatest cathedral after St.Peter in Vatican and the cathedral in Seville. A complex of 135 spires and 3200 statues, crammed onto the roof and into the facade, adorn the exterior of this vast cathedral. In particular, the central spire is capped by a golden statue, called Madonnina, literarily “little Madonna”, traditionally considered the Milan’s protector. The interior of the Cathedral, organized into five aisles divided by majestic pylons, contains a collection of beautiful and sacred pieces of art donated by wealthy noblemen and patrons over the centuries.

The Museum, with its approximately 2,000 m² of floor space and 26 rooms, collects the Treasure of the Cathedral and works of art from the cathedral and from the Veneranda Fabbrica’s storerooms. The pieces in the collection are placed in a chronological itinerary that allows visitors to discover the construction phases of the cathedral, from its foundation in 1386 to the 20th century.

The Ambrosian Library, founded by Cardinal Federico Borromeo on September 7, 1607 and inaugurated on 8 December 1609, was one of the earliest libraries to grant access to all who could read and write. It was conceived by its founder as a centre for study and culture. The Library is one of the most important in the world. Its collections numbers more than a million printed volumes (including thousands of incunabula and books dating from the 16th century); nearly 40,000 manuscripts (including the celebrated Codex Atlanticus and some of the most important existing manuscripts) in Italian, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Syriac, Ethiopic (and much else); 12,000 drawings (among them works by Raphael, Pisanello, Leonardo and other renowned masters); 22,000 engravings; and other unique rarities (old maps, musical manuscripts, parchments and papyri).

BRIDGE|50 is a research project aimed at investigating the residual structural performance of a 50-year-old concrete bridge recently dismantled in Italy. The research activity is carried out jointly by Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino and the project partners include several public authorities and private companies. The project involves a wide experimental campaign of non-destructive testing and full-scale load tests on a group of 29 prestressed beams and two pier caps moved and stored in a testing site located in the Mirafiori campus of Politecnico di Torino. The planned activities include photographic mappings, drone surveys, non-destructive testing, full-scale load tests, and extraction of a large number of material samples from the tested structural elements for laboratory tests.
This Technical Tour will include both an introductory presentation and a guided visit of the testing site aimed at providing an overview of the structural members under investigation along with an in-depth description of the ongoing experimental activities and recent outcomes of the project.

The Museo Egizio (Egyptian Museum) is an archaeological museum in Turin specializing in Egyptian archaeology and anthropology. It houses one of the largest collections of Egyptian antiquities, with more than 30,000 artifacts, and is considered the second most important Egyptology collection in the world, after the Egyptian Museum of Cairo. Discover 4000 years of history, archeology, and art.