Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo
Giorgio Squinzi has been reappointed on the Board of Directors of the famous old Milanese institute set up to safeguard the beauty of Milan’s most important landmark and now chaired by Fedele Confalonieri
Being born, growing up and living in one place is something we cannot overlook if want to try and get a better grasp of who we are and what we are really like. Occasionally focusing on Mapei’s Milanese roots means retracing the history of a company and a family, which has always had very close ties with Milan that are growing even stronger as each year goes by.
Mapei has always been closely tied to the city’s economic and cultural fabric, helping it to grow through the products it manufactures, which have been used to repair and restore important buildings and are still used for the most important projects in modern Milan.
Mapei’s direct relations with the city of Milan mean it is often involved in projects aimed at supporting Duomo Cathedral, the city’s landmark building that has drawn on the company’s products and technology in the past to repair and waterproof its terraces and protect the ornamentation on its façade.
Another very recent example is the boss of Mapei, Giorgio Squinzi’s reappointment on the new board of directors of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo, unquestionably the oldest and most loved of all Milan’s institutions. The Fabbrica, a public institute, was founded in 1387 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, who was then ruling over the city, to build and manage Milan Cathedral’s intricate “machinery”, a monument that is now visited by 5 million tourists-a-year with somewhere between 7-10,000 visitors every day. There are seven members of the Fabbrica’s Board of Directors, who remain in office for three years, two of them are appointed by the Diocesan Ordinary and five by the Ministry of the Interior, after consulting with the Archbishop. One of them is then appointed President.
The Minister of the Interior currently in office, the Right Honourable Marco Minniti, issued a special decree (D.C.A.C. no 48/2017) to reappoint the members of the Board of Directors for another three years. The directors are Simona Beretta, monsignor Gianantonio Borgonovo, Fedele Confalonieri, Ferruccio Resta, Luigi Roth, Claudio Sala and Giorgio Squinzi. After the farewell speech by the outgoing President, Mons. Gianantonio Borgonovo, the Board of Directors appointed the new president, Fedele Confalonieri, on 18th July.
“I am honoured to take office as the president of the Board of Directors of the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano, I will do my utmost to be myself and represent all the people of Milan during my time in office, working in close partnership with all the other members of the Board of Directors”: were the president’s first words after being appointed.
While wishing all the very best to newly-appointed President Confalonieri and reinstated director Giorgio Squinzi, both Milanese and real AC Milan supporters, it is worth remembering the wonderful definition of “Milanese-ness” coined by somebody who knew Milan very well. Here is what Alessandro Manzoni poet and novelist of the utmost importance in Italian culture and history, wrote: “Milanese-ness is an either inborn or acquired aptitude for distinguishing the useful from the useless. Being Milanese is almost a philosophy embodied in the worship of efficiency and decorum”.
