Fondo Ambiente Italiano

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Fondo Ambiente Italiano
(FAI)
legal form charitable foundation
founding 1975
founder Giulia Maria Mozzoni Crespi
Seat Milan , Italy
motto For the landscape, art and nature. For everyone and forever.
purpose Preservation of monuments and nature protection in Italy
Action space Italy
Chair Andrea Carandini
Employees approx. 200
Volunteers 7,000
Members approx. 100,000
Website www.fondoambiente.it

The FAI - Fondo Ambiente Italiano is a non-profit foundation for the preservation of monuments and nature conservation in Italy. The aim of the FAI is to preserve the Italian cultural landscape and make it accessible to a broad public. He is based on the model of the British National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty . The FAI manages 47 important listed cultural assets, 34 of which have been restored by the FAI and made available to the public. Approx. 600 hectares of landscape are under the protection of the FAI. (As of July 2013). The FAI is financed through donations, inheritance gifts and interest-free loans .

history

Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como
San Fruttuoso Abbey, Camogli, Liguria
Frescoes in Castello di Avio, Trentino
Villa dei Vescovi near Padua
Temple of Vesta in the Villa Gregoriana, Tivoli

The foundation goes back to the initiative of Elena Croce, the daughter of the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce . Elena Croce wanted to apply the UK National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty model to Italy. Giulia Maria Mozzoni Crespi , Renato Bazzoni, Alberto Predieri and Franco Russoli sign the founding act of the FAI in 1975. Shortly after its establishment, the FAI received its first important foundations and donations.

The first donation was made in 1976 by the lawyer Piero de Blasi. He left 1000 m² of land on Panarea , one of the Aeolian islands off Sicily, to the FAI , thus preventing the development and destruction of a large part of the island. In 1977 Emanuela Castelbarco, Arturo Toscanini's granddaughter, donated the medieval castle Castello di Avio in Trentino to the FAI . The FAI began an extensive restoration of the castle and at the same time enabled the Castelbarco family to continue to inhabit parts of the castle. Costs for restoration, administration and the subsequent opening of the castle to the general public, however, were solely subject to the FAI. With this, the FAI established a new model of monument protection in Italy. Also in 1977, the FAI began restoration work in the monastery of Torba , Castelseprio , in the northern Italian province of Varese. Giulia Maria Mozzoni Crespi, the founder of the foundation, acquired the monastery initially at her own expense and then donated it to the FAI to save it from total ruin. Today the monastery complex is one of the most important testimonies of the Lombards in Italy and thus a UNESCO World Heritage Site .

In 1983 the princely family Doria Pamphilj transferred the Abbey of San Fruttuoso and the associated village on the coast of Liguria to the FAI. The FAI restored the 13th century abbey, which is only accessible from the sea. In 1984 the Countess Elisabetta de Rege Thesauro Provana del Sabbione donated the castle Castello della Manta near Cuneo to the FAI. In 1986 the Italian steel company Italsider donated the Baia di Ieranto , a bay on the Sorrento peninsula . Other small donations followed. The region of Sicily left the rights of use to the gardens of Kolymbéthra in the temple complex Valle dei Templi near Agrigento with 5 hectares of orange and almond groves to the FAI. In 1988 the FAI acquired the Castello di Masino near Turin, the Villa del Balbianello on Lake Como and the Villa Della Porta Bozzolo near Varese.

In 1996, Count Giuseppe Panza di Biumo gave his villa in Varese, including his collection of contemporary art, to the FAI. The Villa Menafoglio Litta Panza was opened in 2000 after extensive restoration. In 2002 the Italian state transferred the rights of use to the historic Villa Gregoriana park in Tivoli near Rome to the FAI . Important new additions are: the Villa Necchi Campiglio in the heart of Milan, the pre-Palladian Villa dei Vescovi near Luvigliano in the Euganean Hills in Veneto and the Bosco di San Francesco near Assisi .

In 2011, the insurance company Assicurazioni Generali left the former exhibition house of the Olivetti entrepreneurial family in Piazza San Marco in Venice to the FAI . In 2012, the province of Lecce in Apulia left the Abbazia di Santa Maria di Cerrate abbey to the FAI for 30 years.

activities

Restoration, public utilization and protection of cultural property

The restoration, preservation and utilization of the cultural assets for the public take up most of the work of the FAI. Around 70% of all financial resources of the FAI flow into these core activities. Some of the properties donated to the FAI are so-called natural and landscape assets. The FAI ensures their preservation and prevents unlawful use or destruction of the property, e.g. B. by speculation or development.

Campaigns and Public Relations

The FAI regularly runs public campaigns. Worth mentioning are the “Giornate FAI di Primavera”, which every spring attracts up to 500,000 visitors to museums, villas, gardens and other cultural assets that are opened and explained to the public for this purpose. Another event is the “Luoghi del Cuore” campaign, roughly translated: Places that are close to my heart. The campaign calls on Italians and Italy lovers from abroad to name their favorite places in Italy and to work to preserve them. In 2012 over a million people took part in the campaign, in the ninth campaign in 2018 over two million. Over seven million votes have been cast since the campaign began.

FAI cultural assets

Most of the cultural assets managed by the FAI are open to the public. Visitors pay an entrance fee and are given a guided tour by trained staff or audio guides . Members or sponsors of the FAI have free or reduced admission. Through the partnership with the UK National Trust , reduced or free admission also extends to the goods of the National Trust. Some of the villas can also be rented for events.

The main assets that the FAI manages include:

Northern Italy

Lake Como, Lake Maggiore

Piedmont

Valtellina, Trentino-South Tyrol

Milan

Veneto

Ligurian coast, Cinqueterre

Central Italy

Umbria

Lazio, Rome, Tivoli

Southern Italy

Campania, Naples

Apulia

Sicily

Structure and structure of the foundation

Chairperson

Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees consists of 22 members, all of whom have prominent roles in Italian culture, business and science.

Regional structure

The FAI - Fondo per l'Ambiente Italiano is active nationwide in 116 delegations and 14 regional representations, which are supported by 7,000 volunteers.

Public recognitions and awards

In 1988 the FAI received the Italian President's Gold Medal of Merit for its contribution to Italian culture

Web links

Commons : Fondo Ambiente Italiano  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FAI. La nostra storia
  2. ↑ Annual report 2017 , the balance sheets back to 2007 are available.
  3. ^ I luoghi del cuore 2012 ( Memento from July 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Results 2018, published on February 6, 2019 with a lot of information about implemented measures
  5. ↑ Overview . The information can be found in the middle of the page, so scroll a little if necessary.
  6. ↑ Medaglia d'oro ai benemeriti della cultura e dell'arte FONDAZIONE FAI ( https://www.quirinale.it/onorificenze/insigniti/197 )