04/12/2020

cmb-restauri-renovation-museo-opera-duomo-museum

Opera del Duomo Museum

Florence
ITALY

Open heart surgery

The extremely delicate task of moving the works, but also great emotion in seeing them positioned in their place. Engaged to work in a prestigious museum, CMB’s workers took hold of the Michelangelo’s Pietà and other works of art that few have the fortune to touch.

With this project, CMB was able to clearly demonstrate its capacity in its primary role in the renovation of historical buildings.

SPACE FOR THE PIETÀ BANDINI (THE DEPOSITION)
Michelangelo’s masterpiece was moved and enhanced thanks to a new location

5.882

sq m – useful surface area

750

works of art displayed

1891

the year when museum was founded

Technical Description

The renovation and extension of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence was a challenging project of consolidation, restoration and re-adaption of use, inside spaces that have tripled the exhibition area of the museum, incorporating inside what remained of the 19th century Teatro degli Intrepidi.

The Museum, among the most important venues in the world for the exhibition of sacred sculptures, possesses a series of works of priceless value, which represent the apex of Florentine Renaissance sculpturing, from Donatello to Della Robbia, to the Pietà Bandini by Michelangelo, to the Porta del Paradiso (Gates of Paradise) by the sculptor-goldsmith Lorenzo Ghiberti and the silver altar of the San Giovanni Baptistery.

From a construction point of view, the project involved the alternation of the application of techniques particular to restoration work and applications typical of new constructions. As a result, as well as the consolidation of the deep and superficial walling structure and the development of hoops with anti-seismic frames, there was the building of high pillars in reinforced concrete, or the building of the roof of the great Sala del Paradiso with straight iron boxed-shaped trusses.

In the heart of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo

With the new arrangement of the spaces in the Opera del Duomo Museum, an itinerary has been created that gradually introduces the visitor in the discovery of the splendours of Renaissance sculptural art. The Corridoio dei maestri (Corridor of the masters), a graphic installation made with slabs of Carrara marble, leads to the majestic Sala del Paradiso that houses the reconstruction of the ancient facade of Santa Maria del Fiore. Three superimposed galleries overlook the spectacular hall illuminated by natural light thanks to a system of sheets.