There governance it is the set of subjects and strategic objectives aimed at directing and ensuring the management of the World Heritage Site, in compliance with the rules established by UNESCO for the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
For the Mantua and Sabbioneta site, governance derives from interinstitutional agreements, starting with the first Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2006, as part of the candidacy, to define the methodologies for drafting and implementing a Management Plan.
Following the inscription of the Site in the World Heritage List, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2009 Memorandum of Understanding, renewed in 2023, between the MINISTRY OF CULTURE Regional Secretariat for Lombardy, Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape for the provinces of Cremona, Lodi and Mantua, LOMBARDY REGION, PROVINCE OF MANTUA AND MUNICIPALITY OF MANTUA, MUNICIPALITY OF SABBIONETA.
The signatories undertake to coordinate and collaborate, each within their own sphere of competence, for the protection, the conservation and the valorization of the areas falling within the UNESCO Site of Mantua and Sabbioneta, in the context of the current regulatory instruments, and in coherence with the Management Plan. In the new agreement, the signatories once again agree to identify the Municipality of Mantua as the contact body for the UNESCO site.
Also in 2009, the two municipalities of Mantua and Sabbioneta signed a Memorandum of Understanding in which they committed to jointly coordinate and manage all the actions envisaged in the Management Plan and agreed to identify the Municipality of Mantua as the coordinating body for the implementation of the management commitments undertaken.
The Protocol, which is renewed every three years, also identifies the coordination and technical support body the Mantua and Sabbioneta World Heritage Office. This office, coordinated by the two Mayors or their delegated councilors, is made up of human resources within the two municipal administrations.
Since 2002, the World Heritage Centre, based in Paris, has made it mandatory, for the purposes of inclusion in the World Heritage List and to guarantee correct management of the inscribed property, to provide an adequate Management Plan for each site.
The Management Plan is a strategic and operational document aimed at ensuring the preservation of the property's recognized Outstanding Universal Value for present and future generations. It is a tool capable of analyzing, through the involvement of various stakeholders, the cultural and socioeconomic context, in order to promote coordinated and shared protection and enhancement actions and projects to address threats that interfere with the maintenance of the OUV (Outstanding Universal Value).
The first Management Plan of the Mantua and Sabbioneta Site was drawn up in 2006 as part of the candidacy for inclusion in the World Heritage List. Finalized, as required by the World Heritage Centre, to ensure the long-term preservation of the values underlying the recognition, this Plan guided the actions carried out by the two Municipalities for the Site until 2020, the year of adoption in the new plan.
