On Saturday 18 May at 12.30 p.m., a ceremony was held to mark the unveiling of the first UNESCO plaque, placed under the portico of Palazzo d'Accursio. The event was attended by Jyoti Hosagrahar, Deputy Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, and by representatives of Bologna local authorities.
The plaque outlines the reason for the inclusion of the Porticoes of Bologna property in the World Heritage List, with text in Italian and English. There is also a QR code linking to this official website, which also contains specific content for deaf people, as indicated by the symbol shown. There is also a short message in Braille informing blind or visually impaired people that they are in the vicinity of a UNESCO property. They too can use a QR code to go the site, which contains content that is accessible to the most common facilitated reading systems.
Accessibility for persons in wheelchairs is provided by the plaque’s positioning at a height that makes it easy to read.
The event was opened by the children's choir of the Bernstein School of Music Theatre of Bologna, with a performance of the Anthem of the Porticoes. To close the proceedings, writer and actress Marinella Manicardi performed her monologue, “I portici a occhi chiusi”, an original piece written specially for the occasion.
The unveiling of the plaque was the pinnacle of the two-day preview of the Bologna Portici Festival, going under the name Heritage Meets the Future. The first day of the event on 17 Friday May featured a conference at the Cinema Modernissimo entitled “Perception, use and care of urban historical heritage: Bologna and the porticoes. Then, on the second day, a round table was held in the Salaborsa Library, under the title “Global challenges, shared solutions: a discussion with the site managers of some of the most important European cities awarded UNESCO World Heritage status”.
In the coming months, each of the twelve components of the serial property The Porticoes of Bologna will receive similar illustrative plaques.
