POMPEII, Italy — Italy unveiled the restored crown jewel of the ancient city of Pompeii on Friday, showing off a rare success story as it races to shore up the site marred by such mismanagement and neglect that it risked losing EU funding and its UNESCO World Heritage site listing.
Culture Minister Dario Franceschini cut the ribbon to open the restored Villa of Mysteries, a spectacular estate on the outskirts of Pompeii’s city center that features some of the best-preserved frescoes of the site.
Franceschini said that although problems still remain at Pompeii, Italy was on schedule to meet a European Union deadline to spend $111 million of EU funds by the end of the year for maintenance and restoration.
Three projects have been completed, and 13 are underway, officials said. In addition, 85 people have been hired to work on the site, and visitor numbers last year were 200,000 more than in 2013.
“We know well that the world looks with great attention at everything that happens at Pompeii,” Franceschini said as he stood before a fresco of Dionysius and Aphrodite in the villa. “Today, Italy is proud to say to the world that we have turned a page.”
Pompeii, a busy commercial city overlooking the Mediterranean, was destroyed in A.D. 79 by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius that killed thousands of people and buried the city in 20 feet of volcanic ash. The ash also helped preserve Pompeii’s treasures, providing precious information about life in the ancient world.
In recent years, Pompeii has been bedeviled by neglect and mismanagement characteristic of Italy’s underdeveloped south. Hit by rains, some of Pompeii’s walls have crumbled.
