The Minister for Regional Affairs and Autonomies arrived in Piacenza in the late afternoon of Friday 9 July, Mariastella Gelmini, for an inspection inside the former military hospital, a structure that the Region and the Municipality, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Defense and the State Property, want to redevelop, applying to national and European funding projects.
A recovery intervention that is part of the regional urban regeneration policies aimed at mending urban fractures and restoring beauty and usefulness to abandoned spaces, which often risk generating phenomena of urban insecurity. The intention is to transform the former military hospital into the final seat of the new degree course “Medicine and Surgery” of the University of Parma, currently located in the Alberoni College of Piacenza.
“A building that can truly be an opportunity not only for Piacenza, but also for the University – the Minister said at the end of the visit -. It is clear that it is not easy to find important funding for such a substantial intervention, but it is equally true that the hypothesis of converting this building for an international degree course in medicine is very suggestive and therefore with President Bonaccini and the ministers of Defense and Infrastructures we will try to identify a way to enhance it ”.
“The recovery of a beautiful building within the city, which could become an international venue to welcome many students, including foreigners, and to do very high training, would mean redeveloping the whole area and above all giving further potential to the growth of our center – underlined the mayor of Piacenza Patrizia Barbieri -. It is a project that we care a lot about and that we have been working on for a long time; it is not easy, this is a compendium that still belongs to the Defense and we need to carry out various practices that we have already started. For our part, we will continue along this path: it is an objective to which we will continue to work ”.
“The recovery of an asset like this – adds the president of the Region Stefano Bonaccini – would have a double value: on the one hand it would mean carrying out an urban regeneration operation, on the other an investment in knowledge and talent. If we want to compete with the most advanced territories, in Europe and in the world, we must continue to produce quality, in terms of ideas, projects and products ”.
For the general director of the Ausl Luca Baldino, the building would have “all the characteristics suitable to house the new faculty”. “We are talking about a long-term vision – states the rector of the University of Parma Paolo Andrei -, the investments and work required on this building are particularly huge. The intention is to proceed quickly, everything will depend on the nature of the work to be done, considering that the building is intended to accommodate classrooms, offices, but also a student residence. To date it is impossible to predict the timing: however, we are laying the foundations to start as soon as possible. For us, the medical course in English is a very ambitious project, which has to do with the city of Piacenza and wants to be fully inserted into the university system of the city, both Polytechnic and Catholic ”.
Photo
3 of 4
In the morning, Minister Gelmini visited the Vaccine Hub of the Fair and the Technopole in Bologna, the citadel of science, the future technological heart of the Emilia-Romagna Data Valley, in which the supercomputer of the Data Center of the European Center for weather forecasting is already being installed. in the medium term.
With Minister @msgelmini to the former military hospital of Piacenza, which we propose to the Government to redevelop to make it a university seat, as well as a residence for students. A major urban regeneration project, which we believe can be financed by the PNRR. pic.twitter.com/xQOpSTW3wV
– Stefano Bonaccini (@sbonaccini) July 9, 2021