This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

The vegetal cathedral was opened in April 2017, designed by Giuliano Mauri, an artist from Lodi, who had sadly passed away in 2009. Funding was graciously provided by the municipality of Lodi and some private sponsors, while this peculiar structure was built right where Mauri had suggested – a few minutes from the city centre, on the left bank of the Adda River.

The cathedral consists of a gigantic wooden structure of 108 columns, forming three Gothic naves on a perimeter of 236 x 72 ft, covering an area of 1.913 square yards. Each nave houses an oak and soon the trees will actually replace that very structure.
In July 2018, over 100 spotlights were installed to bless the whole cathedral with wonderful lighting effects, from sunset until midnight. Ever since that time, thousands of international visitors, Italian tourists and all the locals have admired such a peculiar and evocative work of art, also attending several events, guided tours and instructional gatherings organized and offered by Giuliano Mauri Association.

Most, unfortunately, in the summer of 2018 the total lack of maintenance caused serious structural problems to the cathedral: some fungi, in particular, attacked the structure and seriously threatened its very existence. In fact, two columns were blown down by the wind on September 26th, 2018, followed by other 28 on October 21st.
Lodi municipality has not taken care of the problem yet, nor started any restoration project. The cathedral is currently destroyed.

Giuliano Mauri and his vegetal cathedrals

Known as “the wood weaver”, Giuliano Mauri was the first Italian artist of the International ART IN NATURE movement; he built vegetal structures designed to strengthen the bond between man and nature while respecting the latter’s wellbeing by limiting the impact of man’s creations with the surrounding environment.
His works, created exclusively with natural resources, live and follow the natural life cycle, without changing the landscape, but entering into an intimate relationship with it: for this reason, Mauri’s style has nothing to do with Land Art.

Mauri conceived his first vegetal cathedral in the 1980s, aiming to restore the bond between man and his territory. In 2001, he managed to build it at Arte Sella (in Borgo Valsugana, Trento); the second one, started by the artist and completed by his Mauri family in 2009, can be found in Parco delle Orobie (Bergamo), in a more secluded environment; the third cathedral, as we now know, is in Lodi. The artist’s legacy is now kept alive and promoted and by the Giuliano Mauri Foundation.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)