The Archive

The Archive, which is without equal in the world in both academic and extra academic circles, is currently seeing an innovative phase in its story. Created by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle and managed for twenty-five years by Gloria Bianchino, the CSAC now has new governing and management bodies, recently nominated and assigned with the task of rearranging and promoting the collections, restoring the interiors, kitting them out with appropriate facilities, and ultimately opening the splendid Abbey of Valserena up to the public.The “Paradigna Project” includes a complex architectural intervention designed to develop the historic Cistercian Abbey, the surrounding farmland, and all the facilities for the functioning of the CSAC. As well as reorganizing the archives, it is planned to create a new storage wing, spaces for laboratories, teaching, restoration, studios and workshops, as well as laying out a museum inside the church and the colonnaded rooms, developing the sculpture court, and opening a cafeteria with a small restaurant, and a hostel in the former monks’ cells. This will be a system of rooms and facilities to bring the ancient abbey up to date, meeting the latest standards for public and cultural attractions.A new exhibition project for the interior of the church and other nerve centres of the Abbey, will offer general and academic visitors a quintessential taster of the Archive’s extraordinary collections, a sense of the long years of work collecting and studying, in a complementary layout preparatory to consulting the documents.