Bacoli: 'Aret a Chiesa' must not close!

More than 1500 signatures were collected in a few hours by a citizens' committee formed to support "Aret a Chiesa", a bar that, as its promoters say, has contributed to a cultural rebirth of the Cento Camerelle neighborhood. The petition, launched on the Change.org platform, is addressed directly to the Municipality of Bacoli and Mayor Josi Gerardo Della Ragione to renew the concession to the venue.

“Aret a Chiesa”, explain the promoters, “is a small reality located in the Cento Camerelle neighborhood. From the small raised landing on the road, you can sip a drink, listening to soft music, chatting with friends, and admiring the narrow steps that lead to the Church of Sant'Anna, the most sacred place for the City of Bacoli. Over the past few years, Aret a Chiesa has been more than just a bar. Since 2018, Dario Scamardella, owner of the commercial activity, has started an urban redevelopment process that has benefited the entire village. His action, never discomposed, never disturbing, has represented a serious input for the residents who have taken on the commitment to beautify the small streets with plants and flowers, cared for daily. Between the stairs that lead to the sacred place of the Church of Sant'Anna and the ancient spaces of the Cento Camerelle that host the remains of an ancient Roman noble cistern, Aret a Chiesa has made notes of jazz and blues resound. Among its tables, crystalline laughter, composed chatter, ideas, hugs, cultural exchanges, leafed through books. In the narrow streets that connect the sacred and the profane, Aret a Chiesa has played a cultural role of welcome, even for the most recent tourist flows that move between Piscina Mirabile and Cento Camerelle. Aret a Chiesa has been an example of training and requalifying action by a commercial activity that has not cared about economic profit.”

“The concession has not been renewed,” the text continues, “despite it being within the power of the administration. Like any squatter and without any explanation, Dario Scamardella has received an eviction order. There is no new tender in progress, no new procedure, no negotiation. Nothing. The public authority has decided to destroy rather than build, in the name of a balance between public and private interests that are however unknown. We ask that Aret a Chiesa can continue to exist, to be the cultural space that it has been in these years, contributing decisively to the urban and cultural redevelopment of the village of Cento Camerelle. We ask that it can still offer a chair and a table to young and old, hosting that citizen and tourist ferment that has given new meaning to the urban space where it stands.”

The promoters of the petition, through a press release, address directly the Mayor Josi Gerardo Della Ragione "Aret a chies must not close. A requalifying action, a cultural action must not be erased with a stroke of the sponge. You cannot destroy a constructive reality, a cultural space that has triggered processes of urban, civic and social recovery. "Aret a chies" must continue to be the place that favors and stimulates that citizen and tourist ferment that has given new meanings to the urban space where it stands."