A loan to fund earthquake-proofing measures has enabled young students of the Istituto Professionale Commerciale to return to their studies in the school building in this small Sicilian town in the province of MessianThe ancient Benedictine monastery is once again safe and fully functional
Messina October 30, 2018
Promoting growth across the territory in order to guarantee the well-being of people while increasing the competitiveness of Italy in the global market is a core activities of CDP, and the group remains committed to supporting the implementation of strategic works projects designed to bolster the social and economic development of the community. Schools represent a key element of thisare crucial to the personal and professional growth of students, and the leaders and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.
For this reason, a few years ago, we extended our support to Naso - a village in the Sicilian province of Messina that is home to around 4,000 people - with a loan of 497,000 euros, as part of an initiative that was co-funded by the Italian Civil Protection authority. Under this project, a series of structural renovations and earthquake-proofing measures were carried out at the school in Piazza Roma, which once again became the home of the Istituto Professionale Commerciale di Naso (Naso Professional Business Institute) in 2014.
This building has a very unusual history, and dates back to around 1628, when the Countess Flavia Cibo La Rocca ordered the construction of a monastery for the Benedictine nuns, on the site where Piazza Roma is today. At the end of the 19th century, the monastery was singled out as an appropriate place for a school building, and at first, just the ground floor was used for teaching pupils from Naso and the surrounding areas.
From that moment on, the long process of converting the monastery into a school began, and only ended 1954, after the earthquake of 1908 and the two world wars led to a series of setbacks. As such, since the mid-50s, the monastery has been replaced by a school building which over the years has been home to both the town's primary schools and the Istituto Professionale Commerciale.
The school has become a real source of pride for this small Sicilian town, and is the institution chosen by many students at to complete their school education. In the early 2000s, however, the building was condemned as unfit for use and thus closed, with all educational activities moved to the the former prison in nearby Contrada Grazia pending its reopening. After a few years, however, work began on structural improvements. As a result of the support of CDP, the young people from the village in the heart of the Nebrodi mountains returned to the school in 2014, to find themselves back within those walls, steeped in a long and eventful history - a place of profound value for the entire local population.
Extensive renovation work was carried out, from the strengthening of the building's foundations and internal walls to the replacement of the various systems (water, sewage, heating and electricity), the restoration of the exterior façades, the replacement of windows and doors, the resurfacing of the floors and the painting of all of the spaces. In short, everything that was required in order to hand the new Istituto Commerciale Professionale back to to the inhabitants of Naso.
The building is now home to fourteen classrooms and three administrative offices, and holds around 120 students.