City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto

a) Construction project of a highway extension in the vicinity of Villa Saraceno;

b) Uncontrolled development in the Veneto region.

On 1 February 2006, the State Party submitted a detailed report responding to the decisions by the Committee at its 29th session. A second summary report was submitted in late March 2006 to the World Heritage Centre. This report contained some new information concerning the construction of the highway affecting the property. In an additional report dated 9 March 2006 the State Party also referred to the changes of the project design (relocation of the infrastructure about 800 m, construction of a trench gallery etc.), already indicated in 2005, to be considered an acceptable mitigation measure.

In essence, the State Party report underlined three points:

a) The process of preparing the management plan instruments requested by the Committee, given the great number of municipal authorities involved (21 in four different provinces), is very complex and takes much longer than the time suggested by the Committee as appropriate for the work. The State Party also pointed out that the component of the management plan being developed by Vicenza was well advanced. Concerning the development of the management plans for the villas, the State Party notes that on “19 July 2005 most of the organizations involved signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the Drafting of the management plan”, and that “in October 2005 a management plan Steering Committee was set up”, and that progress was being made.

b) The State Party also noted that due to the suspension of the approval procedures, the detailed engineering drawings requested by the Committee have not been prepared and that as soon as they are ready, they will be submitted to the World Heritage Centre. However, the report also noted that the Council of State on 14 October 2005 “accepted the appeal of the “Società Autostrada Brescia Padova” company, thus cancelling the effects of the previous sentence of the Veneto Regional Administrative Court in May 2005”, and allowing the continuation of the construction of the highway.

c) The State Party further noted efforts to better protect the immediate environment of the Villa Saraceno, through identification of a buffer zone surrounding the villa (map provided by the State Party) in order to “maintain its rural appearance, providing for the conservation of the existing traditional architectural structures and the landscape of the countryside”. The State Party reported that the procedure for imposing the restriction on the area has been initiated, and can be expected to be in place by the end of 2006. The State Party further noted the administrative endorsement by the Regional Directorate for the “Park of the Plain” between Berici and Euganei, “envisaged by the Veneto Region as a necessary and preliminary condition to the creation of the road infrastructure in a landscape protection context”, becoming operative.

The World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS note the complexity of the management situation in the region and that the production of a management plan involving public and stakeholder consultations adequate to build trust, confidence and support for the results, will take several years to complete. The World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS also note that the decision of the Council of State should be accompanied by adequate efforts to control and review the project design in line with the recommendations by the joint UNESCO/ICOMOS mission of March 2005.