Belluno, Palazzo delle Poste, facelift after 86 years: new facades and modern boilers

The restyling project foresees a cost of 800 thousand euros. A new night lighting will be created

BELLUNO. This year the Palazzo delle Poste di Belluno turns 86 and the time has come for its first restyling, a renovation of the facades that will remove the patina of time while respecting the historical, cultural and architectural importance of the building.

The property, Poste Italiane, has put in place an ambitious overall project to redo the facades in one hundred buildings throughout Italy, one of which is precisely that of Piazza Castello, built in the 1930s on a project by the architect Alberto Alpago Novello together with the architect Ottavio Cabiati.

The scaffolding that boxes the whole building has started a few days ago, while the actual restoration work will start shortly. The intervention, worth 800 thousand euros and entrusted to the Cea company in Bologna, will be completed by the end of the year and will restore the beauty of the original facades to the Belluno people, with the high-reliefs in gray Istrian stone by Salvatore Saponato cleaned of smog , as well as the stained glass windows, the Castellavazzo stone slabs, the railings and the wooden doors and windows returned to their original splendor. All under the watchful eye of the Superintendency, since it is a listed building.

The complex intervention was presented yesterday by the provincial director of the post office, Vincenzo Cassero, who arrived to manage the Belluno branch fifteen months ago, by the architects Donatella Berardone and Giulia Ometto, by the restorer Silvia Ulizio and by the manager of the firm Marco Ragazzini.

«The restoration of this important city building is a sign – explained the director Cassero – of the proximity to the territories of the Italian Post Office: even in difficult periods such as the last two years, we have always been there. I am thinking of the delivery of anti Covid vaccines and the computer system for booking vaccinations. Or to the Spid, the digital identity, 80% signed through the Italian Post Office ».

In the province there are 104 post offices, 81 of which in small municipalities under 5000 inhabitants. The restoration intervention, illustrated by the three experts, consists in cleaning and remaking the plaster and arranging all the elements in stone, metal, wood. In addition, work will be carried out on the access stairs and on the windows.

Another non-secondary intervention is the replacement of the old boilers with new heat generators that will reduce the consumption of gas and contain the environmental impact. The two diesel tanks buried in the yard and no longer used will be removed, the internal yard will be redone and a new parapet will be built on the loading / unloading quay. Finally, and this will have a great impact on Piazza Castello and Piazza Duomo, a new night lighting of the building that will highlight the architectural details of the facade.

«We had a constant confrontation with the Superintendency – explained the restorer – because the restoration must be conservative and not substitute. Contrary to what one might think, the buildings of the twentieth century are rarer than the more ancient oneshi, as there have often been renovations that have changed the original appearance. The great effort we are making in this historic building is instead to restore the facades while respecting the original features ».