Unesco reviewing controversial ‘black cube’ project in Florence amid outrage

Unesco is reviewing the redevelopment of Florence’s former Teatro Comunale after complaints that a dark, nearly 30m-high structure—widely dubbed the “black cube”—has harmed the skyline of the city’s World Heritage-listed historic centre. A Unesco spokesperson said the project is under review by the World Heritage Centre in consultation with advisory bodies, noting that operational guidelines require developments not to cause irreversible impacts on the attributes that justified Florence’s 1982 World Heritage inscription. Most of the opera house was demolished in 2021, leaving its Neo-Classical façade, and architect Vittorio Grassi later unveiled a luxury-apartment redevelopment featuring the dark block behind the façade plus two additional white residential blocks topped by black upper storeys. The project has prompted protests and a criminal investigation involving 15 people connected to it, while Unesco emphasized that delisting is a last resort and that it would typically pursue dialogue and possible “World Heritage in Danger” listing first. Eike Schmidt, former Uffizi director and now an opposition figure in Florence while directing Naples’s Museo di Capodimonte, said he had not filed a complaint to Unesco.

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