| The vicissitudes of the cloister are really singular and deserve to be known. In 1739 engineer Pietro Magarelli designed two wings of the actual cloister and a good part of the Franciscan complex, comprised the behind facade, made by valid workers of Ostuni. Along the left wing of cloister engineer Magarelli had designed two small symmetrical loggias and under the blind arcs he had situated the access perron to the upper floors of the convent. In 1864, on a plan written by the architects Ferdinando Ayroldi, Domenico Ciracì and Nicola De Anna, the former convent was widened and transformed in municipal residence. The actual facade of the palace was made in neoclassic style and also the church of San Francesco had one new designed facade, maded by architect Gaetano Iurleo. Between 1864 and 1867 were completed the works relatives to the downstairs and was built inside the cloister a closed square with the shops under the arcade.At the beginnings of the xx century , in order to get the pubblic offices communicating was realised a reinforced concrete path covered by glass partition that is remained intact until the last restoration works. In the 80’s was decided to change the cloister with a project that consisted in the removal of the path and the closing of the arcs with big glass partition. A really obscene plan that would have transformed the cloister in a place not any more available for manifestations of cultural type. It needed a press campaign leaded with decision to render clear to all the not decorous perspective of a false restoration. The lines of the original plan definitively were set aside and in the last two years they proceeded to the jobs of putting in work of the pavement made of chianche and the cleaning of the pillars and the facades. New plasters have been put on the walls and have been brought back to the light some original elements of the eighteenth century’S architecture just composed by the two small loggias magarelliane. The last participations of restoration have been executed in 1996 and the final result of the jobs has left at least perplexed. One of the two 1700’s loggia has been rewalled up and can not be seen any more, while the other has been lengthened to the floor and of fact it has been trasformed in an empty niche. The stones have been in part plastered and part left is uncovered. The pillars and the plinths have been picked and the damaged parts have been simply removed. Less than an year later, an other participation of restoration just to the pillars and the plinths, i whose stones are pulverizing, is becoming unavoidable. It would be interesting to know the reasons for which it has been walled up the loggia of the Magarelli and why the picked stones of the pillars have been left in that way. Watching with attention the cloister in its totality, the upset due to the last restoration (but can be truly considered as a restoration?), can be brightly seen and became evident the effects of a not very orthodox restoration work. Which restoration plan has been realized (after the billeting of the first plan), in order to give back us the cloister to its original beauty? Is really ever existed such plan? The jobs have been executed under the high vigilance of the Soprintendenza ai monumenti and just for that we would want to know why has benne walled up one of the two loggias of the Magarelli and why plaster has been used only in some parts of the walls. A jewel of the baroque architecture of the 1700's cannot be erased without explanations. |
