The Superintendence could not block the "expulsion of the Savoy" from the streets of Bonorva . Better: he would have the skills, but the methods chosen were wrong. For this reason, the Municipality won the appeal before the TAR, which was brought to request the annulment of the provision of the Ministry of Culture, attached to one of the Prefecture, which had rejected the resolution of the administration which had named after Virgilio Tetti (scholar, former mayor of the town and illustrious citizen) the street of the town which now bears the name of Margherita di Savoia (queen). The act was rejected: a question of form and not of substance. But a point in favor of the Municipality, which can now have its say in a comparison between institutions.

The story began in March 2019. The town led by Massimo D'Agostino decides "to change the name of the municipal street called 'Regina Margherita' to give it a new toponym named after 'Professor Virgilio Tetti'" . Mayor and council wanted to get rid of the royalist name, in favor of a tribute to an illustrious fellow citizen. The procedure requires that the resolution be sent to the Prefecture (of Sassari, in this case) which in turn must seek the opinion of the Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape.

The answer came on 29 October of the same year: the change is not legitimate, wrote the ministerial body, because otherwise it would upset a presumed toponymic and urban balance based on the fact that in Bonorva there are the names of «king and queen at the opposite ends of the road network, with the church in the middle, and in continuation a street named after her son». Here the "clear desire to represent, concretely on the urban planning level, the two powers of reference, the political and the religious, the State and the Church" was demonstrated. Only after sending the negative opinion, the Municipality was called to have its say.

But it had to happen first: the eventual decision of the Superintendency, according to the TAR, had to come only at the end of a discussion that established whether and to what extent the toponymy with Tetti would have been detached from the city context.

Therefore the deed was annulled, with the administrative judges also establishing the "consequent obligation for the administration (the Superintendence, ed. ) to re-determine itself on the request of the Municipality, subject to its involvement in the proceedings, within 60 days".

Henry Fresu

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