From Mantua to Naples, the network of Virgilian cities is born

From Mantua to Naples, thecities linked to Virgil ’s biography “meet” in Mantua the Aeneas Route, the cultural itinerary certified by the Council of Europe in 2021, and give birth to a network of “Virgilian cities” that stands as a vehicle for promoting the cultural legacy of the Mantuan poet and the territories and places sung in the Aeneid. The network of Virgilian cities is the brainchild of the Municipalities of Mantua and Borgo Virgilio, theNational Virgilian Academy and the Virgil Foundation, in collaboration with the Aeneas Route Association. The symbolic date of October 15, Virgil’s genetliac, was chosen for its establishment. The event is the centerpiece of a three-day event, Virgil and Aeneas’ Route (Oct. 13-15), all dedicated to the Mantuan poet. There are twelve values in which the Virgilian cities, as they write in their manifesto, identify themselves: Respect for nature and for the landscape that is the fruit of man’s work; love for Mediterranean countries, treasure chests of cultural landscapes and gardens, and a set of tangible and intangible goods to be preserved, renewed and enhanced as European and Human heritage; care for family traditions and affections; respect for the elderly as bearers of values of humanity and a symbol of continuity between generations; concern for the younger generations and protection of their right to a sustainable future; worship of friendship and encounter as opportunities for enrichment and cooperation; aspiration to peace and peaceful coexistence among peoples; aid to refugees, shipwrecked people and people in a state of fragility and weakness; love of art and beauty; commitment to the common good and hope for a better future. The cities, in the name of these values, pledge to promote the Aeneas’ Route Cultural Route and the Network of Virgilian Cities, which place these principles at the basis of the prospects for Mediterranean development and cooperation; contribute to the organization of meetings, study days, artistic, literary, theatrical and musical events, projects, activities with schools and the younger generation, production of content and works of artistic and educational value related to the Virgilian cultural heritage and the myth of Aeneas; promote local development and cultural tourism related to the sense of identity of places, Virgilian traditions and the myth of Aeneas; meet at least annually to promote the Virgilian Cities Network and the tangible and intangible cultural heritage that is its foundation and identity element; to promote recurring events on days and places of historical or symbolic value with respect to the biography and cultural heritage linked to the figure of Virgil; to celebrate the meetings and widespread events of the Virgilian Cities Network under the aegis of the cultural itinerary Aeneas’ Route in Virgilian places and Cities linked to the biography of Virgil.

Already numerous municipalities have joined the “network”: besides Mantua and Borgo Virgilio, the municipalities of the Atella site in Campania (Orta di Atella, Sant’Arpino, Succivo, Frattaminore) that are connected with ancient Italic theatrical traditions; Cremona, where Virgil stayed during his training and where musical traditions are connected with the numerous transpositions into music of the myth of Aeneas and Dido; Centola Palinuro, linked to the memory of the faithful helmsman of the Trojan fleet; Quarto, one of the cities of that Phlegrean area that Virgil frequented at length during his Campanian sojourns, Bacoli, the scene of the crucial events of Book VI of the Aeneid (Capo Miseno), Naples, where Virgil sojourned for a long time, leaving an indelible mark on the cities’ history and popular devotion (“Virgil the Magician”).

They are in the process of joining Erice, the apex of the Sicilian triangle (with Trapani and Segesta) linked to the figure of Anchises where Aeneas, a unique example in the Aeneid, goes twice, first to bury and then to honor his father, the city metropolitan Rome, a fateful place in Virgil’s life, which in its metropolitan area is also home to Lavinium, the city founded by Aeneas, and Pozzuoli, also the scene of the crucial events of the sixth book of the Aeneid, the encounter with the Sibyl at Cumae and the descent to the underworld through Lake Avernus. Contacts are being made with Milan, another stage in Virgil’s education and where Mozart wrote his Ascanio in Alba to a libretto by Parini; Verona, where the presence of the gens Vergilia is attested; and Brindisi, where Virgil died on Sept. 21, 19 B.C. These are all places connected to Virgil’s life or to the stages of Aeneas’ journey to Italy.

Virgilian cities recognize themselves in the values represented by the work of Virgil, a European poet par excellence with the account of the Mediterranean cultural origins of European civilization represented by theAeneid; a poem capable of an admirable synthesis of cultures from the East, the italics of pietas, respect and devotion for the elderly (Anchises), responsibility for the new generations (Ascanius) and the new focus on the individual that will find expression a few decades later in early Christianity.

“The establishment of the Network of Virgilian Cities here in Mantua with the Municipalities of Mantua and Borgo Virgilio, the National Virgilian Academy and the Virgil Foundation,” says Aeneas’ Route Association President Giovanni Cafiero, “completes a path started with the certification of Aeneas’ Route in 2021 as a Council of Europe cultural itinerary. Virgil remains an inexhaustible source of inspiration for us: the love of nature, the yearning for peace, the dimension of care, the sense of mission carried out for the community and the younger generations, are part of a message that supported us during the pandemic and that still guides us today to address the climate and environmental crisis, the prospects of overcoming wars on the borders of Europe, and the solidarity-based co-management of Mediterranean emergencies.”

The full program of the “Virgil and Aeneas’ Route” Meeting includes on Oct. 13 initiatives by the National Virgilian Academy with schools in Mantua, on Oct. 14 a conference in the Virgil Museum Park - Forte di Pietole in Borgo Virgilio Municipality, and on October 15, on Virgil’s birthday, the establishment of the Network of Virgilian Cities with the signing of a charter of values, the Mantua Manifesto, inspired by Virgil’s work and spiritual legacy, in the evocative setting of Mantua’s Bibiena Theater. During the Meeting it will be possible to listen to talks by scholars such as Giulia Caneva from the Department of Natural Sciences at the University of Rome 3, who will reveal in detail the world of nature with the talk From the Ara Pacis to the Aeneid: The Botanical Codex of Aeneas’ Route, and Stephen Harrison of Oxford University, who will talk about Mantua in Virgil’s poetry, introduced by Filomena Giannotti of the Department of Philology and Criticism of Ancient and Modern Literatures, University of Siena, and a talk by Giordano Bruno Guerri, GardaMusei general director. Concluding the event on the afternoon of 15 at the Bibiena Theater are Virgil’s genetliac celebrations by the Accademia Virgiliana, with a Lectio magistralis by Alessandro Schiesaro of the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa on The Aeneid in a Storm: Poetics, Philosophy, Metaphor, and a classical music concert curated by Paola Besutti, with an introduction by Arnoldo Mosca Mondadori, in which the Quartet of the Accademia Virgiliana plays instruments made from wood salvaged from migrant boats.

Speakers at the event include the Mayor of Mantua, Mattia Palazzi, the Mayor of Borgo Virgilio Francesco Aporti, the President of the Accademia Nazionale Virgiliana Roberto Navarrini, the President of the Virgilio Foundation and Councillor for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry of the Lombardy Region, Alessandro Beduschi, and Barbara Mazzali Councillor for Tourism, Territorial Marketing and Fashion of the Lombardy Region.

Image: view of Mantua

From Mantua to Naples, the network of Virgilian cities is born

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