The Italian Renaissance almost went up in smoke on Monday.
At least a small section of the quattrocento reproduced in the outskirts of Rome.
A fire broke out on August 1 in the legendary Cinecittà studios, raising fears of the worst in this period of historic drought.
Despite impressive images showing a plume of black smoke rising from the monumental Florentine scenography, the studios and the fire brigade declared at the end of the afternoon that the accident had caused only a light material toll.
“The fire has been extinguished. There are no injuries, poisonings or serious material damage,”
studio spokesman Marlon Pellegrini said in a statement.
The fire, which gave off thick black smoke visible for several kilometers, started in the afternoon on a papier-mâché tray recreating Renaissance Florence.
Completely destroyed, the set was being dismantled, explained the firefighters on Twitter.
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A future European hub
This is not the first accident that has caused a small portion of the studios to go up in smoke.
In 2007, a spectacular fire devastated a warehouse housing sets for the Anglo-American television blockbuster
Rome
relating the birth of the Roman Empire.
Many classic masterpieces were filmed in the
“Cinema City”
such as
Ben Hur
(1959) by William Wyler and La
Dolce Vita
(1960) by Federico Fellini.
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In the 1970s, the boom in television productions and the crisis in cinematographic productions had put an end to the golden age of Cinecittà, which would then experience a long crossing of the desert.
Privatized, then returned to public control in 2017, the studios once again hosted foreign productions from the early 2000s, without however ever regaining their original luster.
The management of Cinecittà, thus unveiled last year a development plan of 260 million euros with the ambition of becoming by 2026
“an important European cinematographic pole”
, by betting on series and TV programs. .
This plan provides in particular for the doubling of the surface area of the studios, the creation and renovation of sets, the construction of an indoor swimming pool and a theater with a 360° green screen.