Ennio and Donatella Brion, heirs of the Brion Memorial, are donating the famous family funeral complex to FAI, the Italian Environmental Fund, which is committed to protecting and promoting Italy’s historical, artistic and landscape heritage.
The immense, poignant monumental site covers 2,200 square meters, set in the Treviso countryside of San Vito di Altivole. It was Carlo Scarpa’s last work, built between 1970 and 1978, the year Scarpa, the great Venetian architect, died during a trip to his beloved Japan.
“This is the only work I am happy to go visit,” Scarpa said, “because I feel like I achieved the sense of the countryside like the Brion family wanted. Everyone goes there with a lot of affection; children play, dogs run. We should make all cemeteries like this.”
Memoriale Brion. Ph © Luca Chiaudano
Recently chosen for the site of Dune 2, the epic film with Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Javier Bardem, it was commissioned in 1969 by Onorina Brion Tomasin, in memory of her late husband, Giuseppe Brion, founder and owner of Brionvega, a leading electronics manufacturer in the post-World War II era.
The donation was announced at Maxxi museum in Rome, launching the collaboration between the two institutions for promoting the monument. The museum holds an incredible collection of 1,583 graphic documents, drawings and notebooks, evidence of Scarpa’s intense career.
Memoriale Brion. Ph © Luca Chiaudano
After the donation, formalized on June 21, 2022, FAI will have the honor and responsibility of best maintaining, managing, and promoting the monument, as well as organizing events, such as special guided tours by reservation only, starting in September, with an audio guide, already freely accessible on site through QR code, created by the Municipality of Altivole.
