A visitor center in Fornelli: after 9 years the cells of the Asinara super prison are reopened
Regional funding of 900 thousand euros: «We want to make it available by next summer»
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From super-prison to a structure open to tourists: a place of memory for dangerous prisoners, terrorists and mafiosi, men who have marked the history of the island Asinara National Park.
The former super prison of Fornelli, closed for over 8 years, will be reopened to the public thanks to funding from the Region , resources equal to 900 thousand euros destined for extraordinary maintenance and safety interventions of the imposing 3,500 m2 building which, together with the courtyard, covers a total surface area of 8,100 square meters.
The technical and economic feasibility project was entrusted to an Rtp, a temporary grouping of professionals – Omar Simonini, Angela Careddu, Nicolò Pittalis and Margò Ginatempo – who in recent days carried out an initial inspection of the island to draw up the plan of interventions to be delivered by the end of January. A work that will allow the former super-prison of Fornelli to be transformed into a Visitor Center for the many tourists who choose Asinara every year as a place of history, not only for its naturalistic beauty.
"These are two different interventions: the first aimed at removing the asbestos present in the courtyard roof, and the second intervention to restructure a part of the historic branch," explains Maria Elena Dessì, director of the Coastal Conservation Agency. "Our goal is to reopen next summer, but this depends on the timing of the interventions."
The Fornelli facility was built in the 1930s as a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients, became an agricultural colony and, later, in the 1970s, was used as a maximum security prison, hosting prisoners from the Red Brigades, such as Curcio and Franceschini, and from the Anonima Sarda. In 1977 the branch of the prison was the scene of a violent revolt that forced a tightening of the prison surveillance system. Fornelli was closed in 1980, and then again in 1987, to then be reopened in 1992 following the massacres in which judges Falcone and Borsellino were killed, and with art.41 bis it was reinstated as a maximum security prison, until its final closure in 1997.
