CONSOLIDATION WORKS ON ST MARK’S BELL TOWER COMPLETED

The consolidation works on St Mark’s Bell Tower, begun in 2009, will finally be completed within a month after the positioning of a titanium bar to protect the foundations. These works were carried out because the framework of the tower had deteriorated and it was leaning. The wooden foundation posts had been damaged over the years by salt water. The architectural shell had also deteriorated generally due to weather and sea events. The work cost a total of about eight million euros and was carried out by the Consorzio Venezia Nuova on behalf of the Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia in close cooperation with the Procuratoria di San Marco and under the scientific direction of the Soprintendenza. The works on the bell tower, including waterproofing the area around the monument with a sheath of bentonite, is the second stage of those begun with the raising of the St Mark’s waterside. The last stage should be the complete waterproofing of the Square to protect it from the ‘minor’ high tides that, as several times reported by the Associazione Piazza San Marco, regularly continue to flood the St Mark’s area. But at present no financing has been set aside for this last stage by the Magistrato alle Acque di Venezia.