Translated automatically by AI from the Italian original.
RAVANUSA (AGRIGENTO) / REGIONAL – Five years after the tragic explosion that shook the community of Ravanusa in December 2021, devastating an entire district and claiming ten lives, the rebirth of this part of Agrigento is now an institutional reality. The Region of Sicily’s regional ministry for Infrastructure and Mobility has signed a €24 million funding decree, drawn from the Development and Cohesion Fund (FSC).
The intervention plan will enable comprehensive urban redevelopment of the area hit by the tragedy, combining remembrance of the victims with the social and residential reconstruction of the town.
The “Samuele” Memorial Park and cultural rebirth
Among the cornerstone works of the project is the creation of a large urban park to be built precisely where the apartment blocks collapsed. The green space, once completed, will be dedicated to the memory of little Samuele, one of the ten victims of the disaster:
“When I went to Ravanusa to announce the new urban park project, I told the citizens that the Region would not leave them on their own. Today that promise becomes a concrete act,” said the regional minister for Infrastructure, Alessandro Aricò. “Ravanusa still bears the wound of December 2021. The park that will rise on the site of the tragedy will bear little Samuele’s name and will be a space open to all, where memory can coexist with everyday life.”
As well as the creation of the green area, resources will be allocated to social infrastructure:
- New homes: Targeted resources to provide permanent, safe housing for families left homeless after the disaster.
- Cineteatro Trento: Full restoration and return to the community of the historic municipal cinema-theatre, long a cultural and social hub for local people.
State-Region agreement and speeding up construction sites
The intervention was made possible by the planning included in the Cohesion Agreement signed between the Region of Sicily and the national government:
“This result comes thanks to the cohesion agreement signed by President Renato Schifani and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, whom I thank for the attention paid to Sicily,” Aricò concluded. “Now the priority is to accelerate: the ministry’s offices will follow every step of the start of construction, because Ravanusa has already waited long enough.”
