The Levante Exedra at Villa Manin has been inaugurated. It will become an international exhibition space.

As explained by Mario Anzil, Vice-President and Regional Councillor for Culture and Sport: “These spaces with extraordinary potential are being inaugurated exactly one month before the opening of one of the largest exhibitions that Friuli Venezia Giulia will host, Confini da Gauguin e Hopper (Borders from Gauguin and Hopper), with works of international standing from 43 museums around the world. After the failure of the first restoration attempt in the 1990s, this is also a comeback for the public administration, because today we are giving back to the community a space that needed a real rebirth and has been redesigned to become a bastion of regional cultural programming. Thanks to this restoration, the Esedra di Levante will now be a venue suitable for major international projects: spaces, facilities and museum standards suitable for hosting masterpieces from prestigious institutions and opening our region to an increasingly European dialogue. A lasting investment for our artists, schools, cultural enterprises and for a public that demands quality’.

The Deputy Governor also noted that “This restoration has brought to light the history of Villa Manin and echoes of the lives of those who passed through it, including some messages from the secret services of the Republic of Venice. Today we have written a new chapter in that history, which I am sure will be enriched with many interesting pages”.

The Regional Councillor for Heritage, Sebastiano Callari, whose offices oversaw the project, is particularly pleased. “Today we are giving the community a facility that will be able to host major events and further enhance a marvel such as Villa Manin, which has been forgotten for too long. I am very proud of this project because, even though architectural constraints made it more complex and challenging, it was completed in record time: only a year and a half passed between the start of work in March 2024 and its completion. Everything that had been initially planned, including the allocated resources, was completely revised in order to create spaces that meet the most stringent requirements in terms of air conditioning and security, using state-of-the-art systems worthy of the world’s most important museums. The final cost of the project was over €7.4 million, managed entirely by the Heritage Department, which has now made a unique space available to the cultural scene and, consequently, to the citizens of Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Callari then pointed out that ‘The renovation work was carried out by local companies, which demonstrated not only extraordinary technical skills and the highest level of craftsmanship, but also commendable passion and dedication. We owe them, as well as everyone else involved in the project, our sincere thanks, because they are concrete proof that when the Friuli Venezia Giulia system gets going, it works brilliantly.’