Authorisation for works and works on immovable cultural property

Authorisation from the Superintendent is required for the execution of works and works of any kind.

Authorisation is also required for cases of demolition and permanent removal of cultural assets.

The obligation applies to privately owned assets declared to be of cultural interest pursuant to Articles 10 and 13 of Legislative Decree 42/2004 (Cultural Heritage and Landscape Code) or as a result of notifications under previous laws (l. 20 June 1909, no. 364, l. 11 June 1922, no. 778, l. 1 June 1939, no. 1089), as well as publicly owned assets verified as being of cultural interest pursuant to articles 10 and 12 of the Code and also assets, pending the verification procedure, over 70 years old owned by public and non-profit legal persons.

Authorisation is also required for works of absolute urgency in order to prevent damage to the protected property, following the communication referred to in Article 27 of the Code.

In the case of immovable property, a change of use with works is also subject to authorisation; if such a change takes place without works, a mere communication is required, in order to allow the Superintendent to detect any incompatibility of the new intended use with the cultural asset.

The competence for building interventions on cultural heritage is reserved to the professional category of architects pursuant to Article 52 of Royal Decree no. 2537 of 23 October 1925 concerning the professionalism of designers; the technical part alone may also be carried out by an engineer.

In the case of an overall intervention, if it also concerns decorated surfaces contained in the property, reference is also made to the provisions of Article 29 of the Code regarding the competence of restorers for restoration work on the valuable surfaces of architectural heritage.

Failure to comply with the obligation to obtain the authorisation envisaged in Article 21 paragraph 1 letter a) and paragraph 4 of Legislative Decree 42/2004 shall entail the application of penal sanctions pursuant to Article 169 of Legislative Decree 42/2004 and, in the event of damage, also the application of administrative sanctions pursuant to Article 160 of the same Code.

Natural persons, private or public legal persons

In order to apply for authorisation, it is necessary to fill in the form for interventions of a building nature on immovable property and indirectly protected buildings and areas (Form 4274), which can also be used for overall interventions in which specialised works on decorated surfaces of architectural heritage are included and not prevalent.

The completed form must be sent to the UMST Superintendence for Cultural Assets and Activities at
pec: umst.soprintendenza@pec.provincia.tn.it

The application may also be hand-delivered to the headquarters of the UMST Soprintendenza per i beni e le attività culturali, to the various information and assistance desks for the public decentralised throughout the territory, or forwarded by fax or by postal service.

For anything not directly provided for, reference is made to the provisions of Provincial Council Resolution no. 2051 of 14 December 2020 (Directives concerning telematic communications between the provincial administration and its public and private interlocutors).

If the intervention is aimed at eliminating architectural barriers, Provincial Law no. 1 of 7 January 1991 provides for special rules both as regards the procedures for expressing any refusal and the reduction of the time required for the preliminary investigation.

Even for works on buildings subject to indirect protection restrictions pursuant to Article 45 of the Code, imposed in respect of the environment and decorum of cultural assets, it is necessary to obtain the authorisation of the Superintendent, if provided for by the prescriptions contained in the restriction measure.

• photographic documentation;
• technical intervention report;
• cadastral map extract;
• project drawings, including plans, sections, elevations of the current state, project state and comparison on an appropriate scale
• extract PUP cartography or PRG cartography if adapted to the PUP (only if the intervention requires authorisation for landscape protection purposes) and, if necessary, the landscape report;
• opinion of the Archdiocese of Trento - Administration and General Affairs Area - Authorisation Service (in the case of requests concerning cultural assets of religious interest owned by ecclesiastical bodies subject to Diocesan Authority)
• information notice pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 of EU Regulation no. 679 of 2016;
• photocopy of an identity document of the applicant (if the application is signed with a handwritten signature and not in the presence of the employee in charge)
• any list of other parties entitled to the application, as an alternative to a formal proxy.

In the case of seismic improvement and extraordinary maintenance works involving significant building works in relation to interactions with the structure, the Synoptic Sheet must be attached, as indicated in MiBACT Circular no. 15 of 30 April 2015, "Provisions on the protection of the architectural heritage and mitigation of seismic risk".

In the case of overall interventions that include specialised works on decorated surfaces of architectural heritage, the documentation to be produced shall include the design drawings envisaged for the restoration works, detailing the data relating to the assets and the intervention, including the executive techniques and constituent materials both original and of any previous interventions, the assessment of the deterioration conditions of the assets and the interactions between the same and their context, as well as the different phases and techniques of the intervention.

In particular, in the case of overall interventions that include specialised works on decorated surfaces of architectural heritage, for restoration works on the same, the submission, as an attachment to the application, of the restoration project or, for public contracts governed by Legislative Decree 50/2016 (Public Contracts Code), of the technical data sheet pursuant to Art. 147 paragraph 2 of Legislative Decree. 50/2016, in both cases signed by an operator enrolled in the Ministry of Culture's list of restorers of cultural heritage (including restorers with a diploma from courses qualifying them to practise the profession pursuant to Art. 29 of Legislative Decree 42/2004, or in possession of a qualification obtained on the basis of the transitional provisions of Art. 182 of Legislative Decree 42/2004, or in possession of a foreign qualification recognised in Italy following a specific decree of the Ministry of Culture's Directorate-General for Education, Research and Cultural Institutes). The restorer must hold a qualification in the sector(s) of professional competence relevant to the nature of the goods to be restored.

None

In the course of the preliminary investigation, further opinions may be acquired, including the opinion of the competent body of the Archdiocese of Trento for ecclesiastical assets pursuant to the Agreement of 18 May 2007, the landscape authorisation pursuant to Article 66 of Provincial Law no. 15 of 4 August 2015 (Provincial Law for the Government of the Territory), opinions on archaeological and historical-artistic assets, the opinion of the Provincial Committee for Cultural Assets in the cases provided for.