Protecting the territory
Protecting the territory is the foundation’s main statutory task. A task that is carried out by monitoring urban zoning laws as well as organizing occasions in which to study and examine landscape defense and protection issues.
In March of 2008 the foundation set up its own scientific committee for the purpose of drafting proposals and technical solutions concerning the main topics of environmental and scenic concern. In addition to its scientific committee the foundation also works with several departments at the University of Florence.
The Scientific Committee’s work fields:
Landscape studies: the committee analyzes town-planning projects involving large-scale changes in the territory’s environmental and scenic make-up, if possible indicating project alternatives minimizing impact.
Water resources: even now water is a crucial economic factor whose importance is destined to grow through time. This is why the committee has devised a plan of studying Chianti’s water resources in order to find new and more sustainable methods of managing them.
Energy production: like water, the energy “issue” is a central one to the committee’s work. Among its study plans it intends to analyze the feasibility and potential creation of energy from renewable sources (biomasses), in which Chianti is particularly rich.
Architectural assets: in synergy with specialized boards, the scientific committee is preparing a meticulous survey of the territory’s historical-architectural assets.
Valorizing cultural assets
The foundation is completing restoration of the eighteenth century convent of “Santa Maria al Prato” in Radda in Chianti. It will house a permanent collection of Chianti’s religious art (including a number of masterpieces by the most famous artists of the Tuscan Renaissance) and will hold temporary exhibitions of modern art. The convent will also contain a multi-lingual info-point, by means of which visitors can surf through the historical and artistic itineraries of the Chianti territory, and a bookshop with annexed coffee shop and wine bar.
