Construction + Civil Engineering

For the first time in 500 years, large parts of the Procuratie Vecchie in Saint Mark’s Square, Venice are being opened to the public. fischer’s fastening products, such as the fischer PowerFast II screw and the FIS EM Plus injection mortar were used in the five-year project to reinforce ceilings and replace old fastenings such as wooden pegs and riveted joints, as well as for many other applications.

Three connected buildings known as the Procuratie surround Saint Mark’s Square in Venice. The Procuratie Vecchie (Old Procuracies) are located to the north, the Napoleonic Wing lies to the west and the Procuratie Nuove (New Procuracies) lie to the south. The comprehensive restoration project involved redefining an internal gross floor area of 12,000 square meters and restoring the three-storey building measuring 152 meters in length.

Sacaim SpA was primarily responsible for the architectural design, as well as the selection of products involved in the restoration and has previously worked with the fischer Group of Compasnies on numerous occasions.  

“It was a very unique project which involved using the same methods that were used centuries ago during the construction of the Procuratie Vecchie because of the construction’s conditions and the planner’s requirements. Two monumental stairways were made entirely of timber, for instance, while individual bricks were laid in the walls by hand. Around 200,000 bricks were used for the stairs alone,” says Daniele Penzo, engineer at Sacaim SpA.

“The new ceilings were all built with timber. Several original ceilings were renovated by adding timber pieces to the ends of the beams and by restoring the boards. These ceilings were made to be earthquake-proof, and their load-bearing capacity was adapted by using specialist screws, metal connections and by safely distributing forces and loads. The fischer PowerFast II screws were used for this purpose along with the perforated fischer bracing tape XBWB. Old fastenings, such as wooden pegs and riveted joints, were replaced with fischer’s heavy-duty fixings such as the fischer injection mortar FIS EM Plus,” explains Penzo.

Thanks to the project’s successful completion, the building’s history can be preserved while the Procuratie Vecchie can be opened to the public for the first time in five centuries.