In Lombardy a weekend to discover the civilization of the Lombards

On the weekend of Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18, 2023, a double event to discover the civilization of the Lombards in Italy will be held in Lombardy, thanks to theAssociazione Italia Langobardorum: the inauguration of the exhibition To Touch the Lombards, set up in the spaces of the Monastery of Cairate (Varese), which will remain open to visitors until November 26, 2023, and the third stage of the digital journey #LongobardExperience with focus on the locality of Castelseprio-Torba (Varese), which hosts one of the seven monumental groups constituting the UNESCO serial site “The Lombards in Italy: the places of power (568-774 AD.C.)”.

The exhibition To Touch the Lombards, with free admission and organized in collaboration with the Museo Tattile Statale Omero of Ancona and with the support and contribution of the Ministry of Culture, will be inaugurated on June 17 at 4 p.m. at the Monastery of Cairate, a Benedictine monastic structure among the oldest ancient in Lombardy, in the presence of Danilo Chiodetti, president of the Italia Langobardorum Association and councillor for Culture of Spoleto, Emanuela Daffra, director of the Regional Directorate of Museums of Lombardy, Sara Matilde Masseroli, director of the Archaeological Park and Antiquarium of Castelseprio, Silvano Martelozzo, mayor of Castelseprio, Rolando Squizzato, deputy mayor of Gornate Olona, Anna Pugliese and Cristina Luoni, mayor and culture councillor of the municipality of Cairate, and Mauro Canavesi, president of the Pro Loco of Cairate.

The exhibition includes a tactile route and various modes of engagement capable of facilitating understanding to acquaint visitors with the extraordinariness and complexity of the UNESCO serial site of the Lombard civilization, offering seven three-dimensional scale models of the most representative architectural monuments of the Lombard serial site flanked by seven models related to the areas where the monuments are located, in order to allow tactile exploration of their contexts of origin.

Made even more accessible by audio descriptions (in Italian and English), which can be listened to via NFC and QR code, as well as by the availability of a catalog in Braille and one in large print, the exhibition is traveling and has already been set up at the Museo Tattile Statale Omero in Ancona, the Palazzo Paolo V in Benevento, the Swabian Castle of Monte Sant’Angelo, the Museum of Santa Giulia in Brescia, the Museum of the Duchy of Spoleto and the Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle in Cividale del Friuli (Udine), and will stop in the future at other locations that request it from the Associazione Italia Langobardorum.

On the afternoon of Saturday, June 17, at 3.30, is also scheduled the opening of the two-day event dedicated to the #Longobard Experience, a series of events launched in partnership by IgersItalia and theAssociazione Italia Langobardorum with the aim of recounting, through the digital tools of the web and social media, the evidence of the Lombard civilization in Italy, understood as a moment of synthesis between the Roman-Classical heritage and the new contribution of Germanic culture in the period of transition from the Roman imperial experience to the early Middle Ages.

On the occasion of the event, which will be held in conjunction with the European Archaeology Days, an international initiative run by INRAP (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research of France), more than ten communities from IgersItalia, the largest largest Italian community linked to the world of digital communication with reference to the promotion of the territory, with the aim of producing a storytelling aimed at telling the historical-artistic and environmental beauties of the territory, with particular attention to the extensive Archaeological Park of Castelseprio, which also includes the small but valuable Antiquarium and the church of Santa Maria Foris Portas, and finally to the monastery of Torba, an ancient nucleus of power of a rural nature that in the early medieval period takes on a religious function with the settlement of a community of Benedictine nuns.

After the meeting of participants, scheduled at 3.30 at the monastery of Cairate, and the greetings of the authorities, represented by Danilo Chiodetti, president of the Italia Langobardorum Association and councillor for Culture of Spoleto, Silvano Martelozzo, mayor of Castelseprio, and Rolando Squizzato, deputy mayor of Gornate Olona, the meeting will continue at 4 p.m. with the opening moment of the exhibition To Touch the Lombards with their Hands and at 6 p.m. with a visit to the monastery of Torba. On Sunday, June 17, a guided tour of Castelseprio Archaeological Park, the Antiquarium, the church of Santa Maria Foris Portas and the excavations is scheduled starting at 9:30 a.m., activities that are part of the European Archaeology Days.

The #LongobardExperience event is promoted by the Associazione Italia Langobardorum, the managing body of the Longobard serial site, in collaboration with IgersItalia as part of the project “Longobards traveling to new scenarios” under Law 77/2006 “Special measures for the protection and enjoyment of Italian sites and elements of cultural, landscape and environmental interest, included in the ”world heritage list,“ placed under the protection of UNESCO.”

For info: www.longobardinitalia.it

Image: Santa Maria Foris Portas (Castelseprio, Varese)

In Lombardy a weekend to discover the civilization of the Lombards

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