A private and intimate “tu per tu” with a skeleton of the past takes us into the greyer and more hidden meanders and corridors of the province of Padua.
Location
The Seminary is located in via Monte Grappa in Tencarola in the province of Padua. The access is easily accessible from the back of the building, Via Sant’Antonio. We have not noticed the presence of guardians, nor cameras.
History
The abandoned Seminary, also called the Seminary of Tencarola, was the fruit of the solidarity and availability of the parishioners of the Diocese. In the 70s, near the bridge, the Minor Seminary was built after the Bishop’s Curia bought the land through the Seminary Board. In the early 2000s, due to the abrupt fall in vocations, the Curia opted to abandon the building.
Now the future of this pile of cement is being discussed between different factions (from an entrepreneurial, engineering, architectural and especially environmental point of view) avoiding demolition, and hopefully yet another example of “unsustainable” development, a shopping centre. A line to follow in my opinion, and as architect Luisa Debiasio Calimani argues there, is the following – an ecological vision that privileges health over partisan interests and political interests over general interests, […] or rather, giving a radical turn to the city through a useful urban planning that respects urban rights to health, sociality and decorum.
Moreover, the Seminar is not just any abandoned place, but for the local residents it is almost a symbol of identity to be safeguarded.
Description
From roof to subsoil, this reinforced concrete giant will make you lose your sense of direction. With endless corridors, huge spaces, dark elevator shafts, talking graffiti and shattered windows, you’ll have your work cut out. Be careful that most of the time the passageways to the upper floors or corridors are blocked with huge iron nets, so you’ll have to find secondary entrances.
Estimated exploration time: 3 hours. Although it is completely empty inside, the place is interesting to visit from a landscape, parkour and graffiti point of view. Suitable for lovers of brutalism.
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