FONDACO IV

1937 – 1939

#FondacoHeritage

The restoration works carried out between 1937 and 1939 constitute the most important interventions on the Fondaco in the twentieth century, and fall within the vast process of modernization of Italy, which saw one of its greatest initiators in the Ministry of Communications, replacing the Ministry of Posts and telegraphs in 1924. This new ministry integrated telecommunications, post offices and transport into a single institution. From the mid-1920s, many railway stations and post offices were built in several Italian cities, among which the Santa Lucia station in Venice was considered for several different renovation projects at the time. Under the direction of Eng. Guido Gerbino, the Fondaco was consolidated with reinforced concrete structures, such as the addition of pillars in the masonry. The foundations were reinforced, the floors replaced or consolidated, the vaults of the porticoes on the ground floor restored, while the roof was entirely replaced by reinforced concrete lattice beams. The “new” Fondaco was inaugurated in July 1939 after assembling all services which until then had provisionally been assigned to other offices in the city, including those related to current accounts, parcels and post delivery. On the third floor there was a large space of forty-two meters in length and eleven in width accommodating the telegraph room, the management offices, the changing rooms and a canteen with adjoining kitchen. A bunker protected the machinery and the vault with eighty centimeters thick reinforced concrete walls. The vast attic housed the storage of telegraphic material. Alongside the restoration work, already in 1938 the remains of the frescoes by Giorgione and Titian, after being partly consolidated at the end of the nineteenth century, were detached to be initially conserved at the Gallerie dell’Accademia. The last removals took place in 1967.