Generali Group partnering the Venice Gardens Foundation for the Royal Gardens

Bringing back the ancient splendour of one of a kind cultural heritage: the Royal Gardens in Piazza San Marco, in Venice. This is the aim of the Venice Gardens Foundation’s restoration project, which in partnership with Generali Group will give the botanical park back to Venice community, to its citizens, students and tourists.

Placed in the heart of Venice on a wide area surrounded by water, between Piazza Grande and the Bacino of San Marco, the Royal Gardens are in an urgent need of restoration. Their original design is barely legible, in terms both of geometrical patterns and of placement of trees and shrubs. Gardens’ historic, urban, social and landscape significance are completely obscured. The restoration will disclose the original appearance of the Gardens and at the same time it will emphasize their function, integrating it within the contemporary urban view.

This project will entail the botanical and landscape restoration work detailed in the plans of the architect Paolo Pejerone; the restoration of the Greenhouse, based on the visual plans of Aymonino-Barbini-Torsello, and the restoration of the historic Drawbridge. After many years of dereliction, this will provide a link between the Gardens, Piazza San Marco and  the Marciana Area museum system. The project also includes the restoration of the function of the elegant neoclassical pavilion designed by Lorenzo Santi originally intended to be a Coffee House, and of the nineteenth-century Pergolato, thanks to the architect Alberto Torsello.

“We are proud to be the sole partner of the Venice Gardens Foundation in this important project for the restoration of the Royal Gardens – stated the CEO of Generali Group, Philippe Donnet. Venice is a place of foremost importance for our Company, given the strong historic tie that has linked the city and Generali for 185 years. The time has come for us to rediscover our roots and revitalize our presence in the city, as we have done in other cities in which we boast an equally historic presence, beginning from Trieste where the Company was founded. The Gardens are the first step. Our contribution will be made not only through participation in activities planned for the public that will be held in the Royal Gardens, but also through the restructuring of Procuratie Vecchie, enabling these buildings to serve as a place open to the outside world, a venue for discussion of the crucial contemporary social issues affecting humanity.”

Venice shares with the Group an international and multicultural spirit and in this city Generali is based in the Procuratie Vecchie, which are now under restoration work and bound to become a permanent place of discussion on the main social issues.

Thanks to the project to restore the Royal Gardens, Generali has once more interpreted its role as a patron of the arts in an innovative way. It has set itself the objective of sharing a unique heritage with the community in which it operates, confident that safeguarding and honouring culture will stimulate growth and development.