GUBBIO'S GRAND MEDIEVAL FEST
The annual Festival del Medioevo (Medieval Festival) is off an running in Gubbio (Umbria) between the 21st - 25th September 2022.
The popular event – a “must” for history fans as well as tourists visiting this beautifully preserved medieval city in Umbria – was launched eight years ago and has grown from strength to strength ever since, thanks to its imaginative programmes and scope that ranges from talks by celebrated international experts to fun family shows and happenings.
Each year, the Festival adopts a particular theme which is explored by panels of eminent speakers in a series of lectures, accompanied by exhibitions of traditional crafts, a “Medieval Market”, dance spectacles and other performances, as well as an exclusive fair of Medieval-themed books.
The title of the 2022 Festival is “Dinastie, Famiglie e Potere” (Dynasties, Families and Power) and the theme will be explored in 90 lectures by international experts on the Middle Ages. Juicy themes range from Lucrezia Borgia, the Icelandic Sagas, Kievan Rus (the Slavic state encompassing eastern and northern Europe in the 9th century), papal nepotism, the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan, the Medici, as well as Medieval art.
Events with catchy titles are sure to attract, like “Shakespeare Juke Box” featuring philosopher actor Cesare Catà, “The World of Game of Thrones” and the session on Tolkien, author of “The Lord of the Rings°.
The leading figure chosen this year to represent the spirit of the age is the powerful war lord Federico da Montefeltro, who was born in Gubbio and whose 600th centenary falls this year. Federico is well known to all of us through his celebrated profile portrait by Piero della Francesco. Not only a war leader, but also a humanist, patron of the arts and founder of the most celebrated library of the period, so much so that he was referred to as “the Light of Italy.”
This year's version of the Festival is dedicated to the celebrated historian Chiara Frugoni, who died this spring. She will be commemorated in the inaugural day by her lifelong friend and writer Virtus Zallot.
M.Stenhouse
Info: www.festivaldelmedioevo.it as well as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter