In ‘even’ years, a small town in the Veneto foothills holds a very unusual chess match that involves all its inhabitants.
In Marostica, in the province of Vicenza, over 600 reenactors perform what legend tells as the story of the castellan Taddeo Parisio, who in 1454 prevented a duel between two young men in love with his daughter. He decided that Lionora, the young damsel and cause of the dispute, would marry the winner of a noble game of chess, played in the Piazza of the Castle with “large pieces, alive and armed”. And so, for more than 90 years - every other year, on the second weekend in September - in the Piazza of Marostica Castle, a game of living chess is played out, with Rooks and Knights, fireworks and light shows, song and dance.
The square itself is a “chessboard”: 256 m² of red and white marble from the nearby high plains of Asiago make up the board while dark trachite borders the edge. The surface of the square not occupied by the board is in red and white Asiago marble; a lighter shade than the red in order to emphasise the beauty of this chessboard, the only one of its kind in the world.
Reasons for the cleaning
The elements, vehicles and foot traffic inevitably leave their mark on the rough-finish marble surface and for this reason it periodically requires intervention with extraordinary maintenance to restore the paving to its original splendour. Fila Surface Care Solutions sponsored the restoration work carried out for the 2016 chess game, providing the cleaning products and technical assistance.
Cleaning
Given the variety of dirt on the surface, the Pro Marostica Association, with technical assistance from Treatment Specialist Nicola Puppo and his team, first cleaned the surface of the square with PS87 degreasing detergent( diluted 1:5), then thoroughly washed it with DETERDEK concentrated acid descaler (diluted 1:10).