The buildings of the Piccolo and Grande Miglio, dating back to the late 16th century, are located on Colle Cidneo inside the Brescia Castle. After being closed for several years for security reasons, they were restored and redeveloped to house the new Risorgimento Museum.
Restoration of the roofing of the Grande Miglio in Brescia Castle
The room on the second floor of the Great Mile is surmounted by a roof with an exposed wooden structure, supported internally by fourteen square-section pillars.
In 2015, two wooden beams were found to have collapsed and therefore the premises were closed to the public. From the investigations carried out afterwards, the degradation of the wood was found to have extended to all the elements: therefore it was deemed appropriate to proceed with the complete replacement of the roof frame, adopting solid larch wood for the new wooden elements, in order to guarantee the structural safety requirements demanded by the current Technical Regulations.
The operations envisaged the complete dismantling of the roofing of the Grande Miglio, with the recovery of the materials to be reused (roof tiles and hollow tiles} and the disposal of the remaining ones; the rebuilding with a new load-bearing structure with Austrian larch solid wood beams and the laying of the terracotta hollow tiles on the new beams, reusing the existing ones, with the possible addition of manufactured articles of the same nature; the creation of a box-shaped roof with phenolic plywood panels, connected with joint-covering strips nailed to the panels, and steel beams; vapour barrier, insulation panels and waterproofing sheathing to improve the performance requirements of the roof; recycled terracotta tiles from the dismantling of the same roof and with possible additions of artefacts of the same nature, laid with steel tile stops
