Jubilee: Gualtieri visits Piazza San Giovanni reopened to the City

Rome, 28 December 2024 - Was Piazza San Giovanni reopened to the city today where the public works department of Rome Capital has started the works starting from April redevelopment works of the square in front of the Basilica and maintenance of the area facing the Scala Santa. In particular, the flooring has been redeveloped with attention to the maintenance of public greenery and environmental sustainability. The arrangement includes, in fact, flowerbeds equipped with automatic watering systems and ground fountains to counteract heat islands. The intervention covers an area of ​​18 thousand square meters and has a total cost of 15 million euros financed with Jubilee funds. The project was carried out by the architecture company OneWorks.

In the afternoon, the mayor Roberto Gualtieri with the councilor for public works Ornella Segnalini visited the square in the presence of the cardinal vicar of the Diocese of Rome Baldo Reina and Monsignor Rino Fisichella.

The intervention consists in the creation of a new pavement, which recalls the Cosmatesque designs of the Basilica, made with traditional Roman stones, such as sanpietrino, basaltina and travertine of three different shades, interspersed with grass, to ensure the permeability of the soil. In addition to the strategic choices in terms of design and materials, twelve ground level fountains inserted to generate the cooling effect and make the square a more livable space. The fountains are equipped with lighting designed to emphasize the mirroring effect of the Basilica's façade even at night.

The progress of the works on the square has reached 85 percent of execution; the Prime Ministerial Decree foresees the completion of the entire intervention (square and Scala Santa area) within the first quarter of 2025. In particular, the works on the right side, on the churchyard and on the central path are concluded, except for small finishing touches. On the left side, the six fountains including the lighting have been completed, while part of the paving and the green inserts must be finished. For the opening of the Holy Door, the area will be accessible, thanks to a temporary grassy surface. The work will resume in January and will be completed, without ever closing the square to public use, by next February. Alongside the main intervention, Areti has modernized the artistic lighting system of the Basilica with 550 thousand euros of Jubilee funds.

For Mayor Gualtieri: “Now we have a a square more suitable for a historic basilica such as San Giovanni in Laterano, a square with splendid marble floors, with water, with greenery, an intervention that we will close ahead of schedule in its final configuration: it was planned for March but we will close in February. Despite the stop for the archaeological finds, we managed to open the square for the opening of the Holy Door: another extraordinary result that testifies to the validity of the Jubilee method".

“From today the square will be usable again, we are in line with the procedural and financial timetable – commented Councilor Segnalini -. We worked every day with the aim of closing the construction site early, but the archaeological investigation meant that the construction site was stopped for 92 days and a design adjustment was made so that the structures underneath the paving did not interfere with the ancient wall structures. New solutions were studied to connect the construction of the external arrangement and protect the archaeological assets. The work is complex, we do not see it but under the paving there are underground tanks for: water collection, the recirculation of the fountains, the system of systems for the operation of the fountains themselves, the hydraulic invariance of the square and the irrigation system of the grassy areas. Laying the stone is an embroidery that requires particular expertise and we have found high-quality workers. By February – concludes the councilor – the paving will be completed”.

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