Lazzaretto of Ancona - Mole Vanvitelliana - La Mole

The Mole Vanvitelliana building stands on an artificial pentagonal island located inside the port of Ancona; it is connected to the mainland by three bridges, and occupies an area of 20,000 m²; the canal that divides it from the mainland is called mandracchio and was designed by the architect Luigi Vanvitelli.

Originally it was reached only by boats; the water supply was ensured by an underground network of cisterns. The water was drawn through three wells, located in the small neoclassical temple dedicated to San Rocco (protector from the plague and epidemics), present in the center of the internal courtyard. The temple is open on all 4 sides, which allowed people locked in the rooms overlooking the courtyard to attend mass without coming into contact with each other and with the officiant.

The place could accommodate up to 2,000 people, as well as a large amount of goods. In the internal part of the building there are the premises of the Lazzaretto proper, which were intended for quarantine, while the rooms in the external part were used as a warehouse for goods. Towards the open sea, the hospital is equipped with a ravelin, designed for the military defense of the port. So from its origins the work was designed as a multifunctional structure: port warehouse, quarantine place, fortification.

At the center of the floor is the lid of the large drinking water tank, obtained by filtering rainwater from the roofs.

Originally the Lazaretto was a multifunctional building: a public health hospital, a fortification to defend the port, a warehouse for goods, protection of the port from the action of the waves. It safeguarded public health by hosting warehouses and accommodation for goods and people in quarantine, who arrived at the port from areas deemed unsafe: for this reason it was built on an artificial island outside the city.

Its charm is also due to its geometric shape, rich in symbolic values: the number five can indicate the power of man to modify the surrounding reality. Furthermore, the Lazaretto is related to the overlying Citadel, with a five-pointed star plant, and therefore also having a shape based on the number five. The site played an important role during the Austrian siege of the French-occupied city in 1799 and during the First World War.

On the night of April 5, 1918, a group of about sixty saboteurs of the Habsburg navy landed at night north of Ancona with the intent of sinking the Italian ships present in the port of Ancona and then fleeing with the MAS (Motoscafi Armati Siluranti). In fact, from 12 February 1918, the waters in front of the Lazzaretto of Ancona became the base of a squadron of MAS, assault boats of the Royal Navy, under the command of the then lieutenant captain Luigi Rizzo.

The daring enterprise had been conceived by the command of the Austro-Hungarian Navy as a response to the so-called "Buccari's mockery" of the previous February, which had Rizzo among the protagonists, whose death was wanted.

Plaque in memory of the foiled attack of April 6, 1918

THE FINANCE GUARDS GRASSI CARLO AND MAGANUCO GIUSEPPE VIGILI SCOLTE DARE WITH THE WEAPONS TO 59 MILITARIES OF THE AUSTRIAN NAVY HERE SURPRISED HERE IN THE NIGHT OF APRIL 6, 1918 TO GET THE MASS MOORED IN THE PORT AND FINSE CORSE ALLIED BY SOLSE HEAD OF A PATROL BRIGADIERE DEI RR. CC. GUADAGNINI ANARSEO WHO BOLDLY INTIMATE AND OBTAINED THE ENEMY OF THE ENEMIES. CITIZENS OF ANCONA REMEMBER THIS MEMORY POSERO IV NOVEMBER MCMXXVII "

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Now it is called La Mole and is a cultural system divided into three episodes: exhibition and performative, formative and productive. A space where things happen and cultural action transforms space into a perpetual dynamic. A system made possible by a charismatic architecture and a common thread, that of the creative relationship between man and matter, unable to generate exclusion.

The Mole is, in just one time, what it has been over the centuries: pause, care, defense, factory, storage, aggregation, leisure, beauty.

Map: Lazzaretto of Ancona - Mole Vanvitelliana - La Mole