Angry friars plan to barricade themselves in historic Florence monastery destined for sale to developer

By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN

(CNN) — Father Giuseppe Pagano is furious. The 65-year-old Augustinian friar and his three fellow monks, who have dedicated their lives to silent prayer inside Florence’s Santo Spirito monastery, are preparing to go into battle over plans to open a luxury retirement home on the site.

“We could no longer remain silent,” Pagano told CNN on Friday, a day after leading a protest at the monastery where Michelangelo once lived—now surrounded by construction equipment. “We are ready to occupy the grounds.”

“On the day we hear work starting, we are prepared to occupy the place and close the doors,” Pagano said. “A fine and jail time is a small price to pay to stand our ground.”

Founded in 1397 for hermit friars who had dedicated their life to St. Augustine, the monastery has been under the custodial care of the Augustinian order for centuries. Michelangelo lived and studied there, and the current complex, across the Arno river from the historic center of Florence, still houses the wooden crucifix carved by the Renaissance master for its basilica.

The complex is partly owned by the Italian defense ministry. In 1866, what was then the Italian state seized the upper rooms, relegating the friars to the lower areas.

Now, a soon-to-be-shuttered military barracks on the site seems set to be turned into a luxury retirement home, with balconies overlooking a cloistered courtyard used by the friars.

In 2022, the defense ministry put out a tender for renovating its part of the complex. This was won by development firm Fastpol, a specialist in luxury retirement properties and hotels. The ministry announced the tender award but has declined to comment on the current spat with the friars.

The friars claim they were largely kept in the dark about the plan.

“We knew for years the army wanted to move out and we asked them to keep us posted, only to find out by chance that the ministry of defense had put (the courtyards) out to tender,” Pagano told people attending Thursday’s protest.

“The company that won is talking about a retirement home but we suspect it will be more like a five-star hotel,” Pagano added, referencing the developers’ budget and speciality. “The idea of guests looking out of upstairs windows down into the one courtyard we use seems to be an invasion of privacy.”

So Pagano has enlisted the support of “Salviamo Firenze” or “Save Florence,” a group set up to protect the city from overtourism, which has vowed to join the monks in protest, with plans to barricade themselves inside the monastery once the work begins.

The friars who live on site, along with the affiliated Augustinian Villanova University in Pennsylvania, submitted a request to meet the defense minister at the monastery to present an alternative plan, which would include a community center for Florentines. The request went unanswered, Pagano said in an open letter to the mayor of Florence, published in the Italian press.

Lorenzo Calvani, the lawyer for the Augustinians, said they have prepared a legal suit in case the development goes ahead. “We will not stand by and watch,” he said on Thursday. “We will leave no stone unturned.”

Pagano and his friars have also asked the city of Florence for support, hoping it will get behind the counter-plan, which would include a library, a refectory and a conference room, along with a guesthouse for students.

Solidarity with the Santo Spirito friars is growing.

Eike Schmidt, the former director of the Uffizi museum in Florence, is helping drum up support. “It concerns the history and the very identity of Florence, Italy, and our civilization,” he told local Florentine press.

“The original sin dates back to the period of Italian Unification, when the building was split between various administrations. But the scandal is the recent one, when in total silence the assignment to private individuals was started,” Schmidt said.

A news conference is planned for Friday evening to raise awareness of the friars’ cause. “Thank God the mobilization has expanded,” Pagano said Thursday. “The strength comes from a desire that exists to save a place that has made history in Florence since 1250 (when the Augustinian order first established a base in Florence). May it continue without losing its identity.”

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