The main piazza in Barga Vecchia -- Piazza Salvo Salvi which has been hidden behind screens for the past couple of weeks as work continued on the rooms below the Town Hall, the Palazzo Pancrazi and in the Volta dei Menchi, is almost ready to be presented to the public once again. Workmen this week were putting the finishing touches to the piazza on what was effectively a huge jigsaw of centuries old stones as each one was numbered and then replaced back in their original position.
The main work that is taking place on the rooms below Palazzo Pancrazi turning them into a museum for all of the castles in this area, still has a long, long way to go -- the sign on the outside of the screens says that the work will be completed within the next 278 days. Nobody is really sure if that means 278 working days or 278 calendar days but al least the Piazza Salvo Salvi will be free to use shortly as it is the only area in the piazza where the sun hits during the winter.
Two of the rooms in the new museum are directly under the piazza and have been constantly damaged by damp seeping into their ceilings and walls from the piazza above. This has meant that the stones in the piazza had to be lifted and a new waterproof layer put down before once again the stones were put back in their original position.
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The last time these stones were touched was back in 2003 when the Scuola Edile Lucchese spent 800 hours during the winter months redressing the piazza.
The sound of stone masons working in the piazza during 2003
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