Balance and a sense of proportion have never been the virtues of Vittorio Sgarbi, the bubbly art critic and Forza Italia parliamentarian, but this time his indignation at the pouring of cement that is ruining the main square of San Candido, known tourist center and authentic pearl of the Dolomites, it hits the mark and fully interprets the disappointment of thousands of tourists and a large part of the local population.
In the dock, in a controversy that grows day by day, there is the new Pavilion of music, a concrete cube of 9 square meters by 9 wanted by the municipal administration and located in the central Piazza del Magistrato. The accusation is twofold: the first concerns the total extraneousness of the work to the evocative artistic context that characterizes the square and the second is the partial obscuration that the Cube of Discord causes to the detriment of the historic Romanesque Collegiate Church of the year 1000 and the splendid Church of San Michele from the XNUMXth century, without mentioning the visibility failures that the new construction is producing for the renowned Hotel Post and for the houses overlooking the square.
“We are facing – thunders Sgarbi – a form of “Nazi” architecture and an abuse that must be severely punished and against which I will present a complaint”. But, together with Sgarbi, the Provincial Tourism Company, the Curatorium for the technical and cultural heritage of Bolzano and Italia Nostra also rose up.
Overwhelmed by criticism, the municipal administration of San Candido defends itself by claiming that the work is the result of a regular public tender which unanimously chose the project in question. On the merits, commissioner Schmieder says he is convinced that "once the work is completed, the criticisms will be reviewed". And he adds: "Even the Pyramid in the courtyard of the Louvre in Paris was initially criticized". True, but San Candido is not Paris and Piazza del Magistrato is not the Louvre but the heart of the tourist town in Val Pusteria which risks damage to its image it did not deserve and which tourists and residents would certainly have done without.
