Project concludes in time for major Jubilee event.
Rome authorities on Monday evening inaugurated the Vela landmark, designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, ahead of the Jubilee of Youth in the southeastern Tor Vergata suburb.
The project to redevelop and complete the futuristic structure, which was abandoned for more than 15 years, was financed with €80 million allocated by Italy’s economy ministry, the state property agency and the Jubilee commissioner’s office.
The Vela or “Sail”, part of the grandiose Città dello Sport project, was designed originally to host the 2009 World Swimming Championships.
The 75-metre high venue was supposed to have housed a swimming pool and a sports hall, however the project ran out of funds and was never completed.
In the end, the World Swimming Championships were held at the Foro Italico sporting complex and the unfinished Vela became a white elephant on the city’s skyline.
The newly-inaugurated Vela comprises a large foyer with 136 arches and a new arena with 8,000 seats and 15,000 standing places.
The redevelopment project saw the venue restored and made safe for the Jubilee of Youth – a central part of the Vatican’s ongoing Jubilee Year – which will be held from 28 July to 3 August.
The external areas, road system and parking lots around the Vela have also been completed, with thousands of trees and shrubs planted in the vicinity.
The inauguration was attended by numerous officials including Italian cabinet undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, Rome mayor and Jubilee commissioner Roberto Gualtieri and Lazio governor Francesco Rocca.
“Hundreds of thousands of young people will arrive here in Tor Vergata in a few weeks and we had the duty to be ready” – Gualtieri said on Monday – “We succeeded with everyone’s collaboration, consistently with what we have defined as the ‘Jubilee Method’.”
Gualtieri said the Vela project “erases the wound of a historic unfinished work and guarantees the city a great new Jubilee legacy”, describing it as further proof that “with method, self-denial and collaboration, in Rome things can be done and done well”.
