Genoa, the city's historic cribs are open in churches: events and guided tours

Despite the pandemic, Genoa will not miss this year’s appointment with its historic nativity tradition, which was born around the beginning of the 17th century and developed in such an extraordinary way that the Ligurian city established itself, next to Naples, as one of the most active centers in the production of nativity figures. In Covid-19 Christmas, Genoa has in fact decided to open the doors of its Nativity scenes anyway, with a series of guided tours, proposed by the City’s IAT Tourist Information and Reception Office and conducted in complete safety.

So it’s off to Andar per Presepi: on Saturday, December 19 and Sunday, December 20, a guided tour will give visitors the chance to admire some of the most interesting local cribs in the company of a professional guide. In addition to the churches in the historic center, there will also be stops and visits to historical places and workshops where you can discover curiosities related to tradition and the Nativity. And again, the Il Tempo dei Presepi program will offer numerous proposals: displays of national excellence historical-artistic nativity scenes, traditional, scenic, landscape, mechanical, ancient, modern, and living nativity scenes in Baroque and traditional costumes; concerts of sacred, classical, Baroque and traditional music; thematic itineraries, guided visits and tours, Christmas markets and many other initiatives. In addition, some of the cribs are included in the program of the online event The Churches of the Palazzi dei Rolli, the protagonist of Christmas 2020: a review of spectacular unedited videos dedicated to the splendor of Genoese churches and their masterpieces.

Among the cribs with the longest history are undoubtedly the Nativity of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Assumption in Carbonara, the Nativity of the Capuchin Cultural Heritage Museum, the Nativity of the Ligustica Academy, and the Nativity of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Mount exhibited at Regione Liguria.

The Nativity Scene at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Assumption in Carbonara, known as “La Madonnetta,” features historic figurines dating from the 17th to 19th centuries): on the right the procession of the Magi (pages, soldiers, horses) advancing at night in the city of Jerusalem and heading toward the cave of the Nativity; in the center the city of Genoa, with some of the most representative ones (San Matteo, Palazzo Doria, Palazzo San Giorgio, Torre degli Embriaci, Porta Siberia and the Lantern with the ships, Porta Soprana and Porta Pila, the neighborhood of Via Madre di Dio, the Sottoripa arcades and the Christmas market, Salita della Madonnetta and the entrance to the convent) as well as the characters moving toward the shrine itself, where the stable of the Nativity is set, to worship the Child Jesus; on the left is a typical Genoese farm, with stable and kitchen, in the landscape of the snow-covered Val Bisagno, with Sant’Agata Bridge and San Siro di Struppa. The shrine can be reached by using the funicular that from the city center (Largo Zecca), goes up to the Righi hills, getting off at the “Madonnetta” stop.

The Nativity Scene at the Capuchin Cultural Heritage Museum, by Franco Curti, on the other hand, is an animated mechanical nativity scene with 150 moving figurines and nearly 40 square meters of scenes and landscape reconstructions of Bethany, Jerusalem and Bethlehem at the time of Jesus. Also on display inside the Museum, as is tradition, are 18th-century mannequin figurines from the school of Anton Maria Maragliano and Pasquale Navone accompanied by popular Genoese and Neapolitan figurines. Like every year, the museum has also set up an exhibition dedicated to Nativity scenes, which can be viewed through a YouTube video, given the closure of museums due to the Dec. 3 dpcm.

The antique Nativity of the Ligustica Academy came to the Academy in 1874, with the bequest of the Genoese scholar and collector Antonio Merli: the artifact was registered as a “very small nativity carved in ivory.” In reality, the nativity scene, initialed on the lower right with the monogram “GBC,” is the work of Johann Baptist Cetto (c. 1671 - 1738), a Bavarian waxworker of Italian origin who, with a prodigious technique, depicted tiny scenes highly sought after by collectors all over Europe and preserved in the most exclusive wunderkammer of the time. To the extraordinary works of Cetto and his son Nikolaus Engelbert a major monographic exhibition was dedicated in 2013 in the city of Tittmoning, Bavaria. A precious ebony and silver filigree frame encloses a relief of minuscule dimensions (84 x 62 x 16 mm): exquisite figurines molded in white wax populate the ruins of a temple that houses the Nativity. Trees and palm trees punctuate the perspective of the scene while in the distance the announcement to the shepherds can be seen against the backdrop of a fantastic turreted city overlooking a lake landscape.

Finally, the Nativity of the Sanctuary of Nostra Signora del Monte, on display at the headquarters of the Regione Liguria in Piazza De Ferrari (in collaboration with the Accademia Ligustica delle Belle Arti di Genova and the Regione Liguria restoration laboratory) is a historical-artistic nativity scene of the Ligurian tradition, which this year consists of 18th-century figurines from the Sanctuary of Nostra Signora del Monte, most of them made by the workshop of Pasquale Navone (Genoa, 1746 - 1791), the most prolific 18th-century sculptor engaged in the creation of nativity figures. The figurines are part of the nucleus donated to the shrine in 1926 by Enrico Luigi Peirano, among the best-known collectors of nativity figurines of his time. In order to comply with anti-Covid regulations, the nativity scene was not set up inside the Transparency Room as in past years, but next to the main entrance, still on the ground floor, precisely so that it could be visible from the outside by everyone through a glass window.

Pictured is the nativity scene at the Shrine of Our Lady of the Assumption in Carbonara. Ph. Credit Fabio Bussalino

Genoa, the city's historic cribs are open in churches: events and guided tours

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