What appeared a few years ago to be little more than a ruin in the fields bordering Turin is now a precious example of ancient Baroque architecture.

The Milena Maesani Studio, under the supervision of works director Antonio Besso Marcheis and the specialized firm Trivella srl, participated in the restoration project that brought the 18th-century Mandina Chapel back to a new life.

The Chapel was inaugurated on June 29th last year, in the presence of citizens, Mayor Roberto Montà, Councilor for Culture Emanuela Guarino, the Superintendency for Cultural Heritage which oversaw the works and was represented by official Lisa Acurti, President Antonio Marzola, and Director Marco Cucchietti of the company Le Serre, which managed the activities related to the acquisition and restoration together with the Municipality.

The Chapel is located in the center of an area destined to become a cycle-pedestrian path, part of the Officina del Paesaggio (Landscape Workshop) project.

Before delving into the technical details of the work, let’s take a brief journey through time to learn about its ancient origins. The property retains the name of Giovanni Pietro Mandina, a merchant and supplier to the Royal Army, who purchased it in 1741.

Following its requisition by the French revolutionary government, the Mandina property was acquired by a well-known Turin banking family, the Nigra, who kept it until the early twentieth century. In 1918, the complex was purchased by the current owners.

The conservative restoration intervention, entrusted to Milena Maesani, involved various operational levels, both outside and inside the chapel.

The main interventions carried out on both the external and internal masonry were:

  • Initially, disinfection and disinfestation operations were carried out with the application of a spray biocide product and the mechanical removal of invasive vegetation.
  • Subsequently, the masonry of the vertical walls and the brick vaults with running bond or herringbone patterns, and any decorative textures such as diamonds, triangles, and squares in the center of the vault, was rehabilitated.
  • Deteriorated and tampered parts were removed, and interventions were made to close small openings with lime mortar, with careful dosing of elements and coloring to make the surface uniform with the existing one. This was followed by a scraping intervention of all the joints and a filling of the gaps.
  • On the flaking walls, a search was conducted for any hidden finds, such as original colors, pigments, figurative fresco elements, and architectural artifacts.
  • The consolidation of the disintegrated plaster was achieved using a special barium solution, suitable for subsequent glazing with targeted retouching interventions.
  • Finally, the pointing of the joints was carried out with a suitable mortar on all types of exposed masonry, along with the restoration of projecting stucco elements with decorations.

The next step was the restoration of the internal flooring with the removal of the terracotta pavement, through the numbering of the removed elements, the creation of a cocciopesto (crushed brick aggregate) subfloor, and the repositioning of the original terracotta flooring for 25% of the chapel’s internal surface.

The restoration project has made the chapel available to the community again as a meeting point for citizens and to host cultural and artistic events such as poetry and music festivals. The conservation of the surrounding territory frames this, which still identifies as a peaceful rural reality, an atmosphere of times past, an oasis of tranquility.