Women at the heart of the Alexandria Templar Festival

Men and women in the Middle Ages lived in different worlds, but they often met. The same can be said of the worlds of historians and artists who meet in the International Festival of the Templars of Alessandria, directed by historian and essayist Simonetta Cerrini and playwright and singer-songwriter Gian Piero Alloisio. The fourth edition, dedicated to the women of the Templars, will be on 5 and 6 July in Piazza Santa Maria di Castello with two evening shows: the one on Friday 5th at 9pm is entitled «The sorores of the Temple» and the one on Saturday 6th, again at 21, «Mary and the Templars». The aim is to tell how the knight friars related to the female universe.

«A few months ago I was invited to speak about the “sorores dei Templari” at an international conference in Portugal – says Simonetta Cerrini –. That’s how it was born the idea of ​​proposing as a theme the women of the Temple in both aspects: on the one hand those who affiliated and on the other the relationship that the Templars had with the Madonna and with other saints». Among the speakers there will be historians of the Middle Ages, this time Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli and Valérie Alanièce, the historical re-enactment group Custodes Viarum created by Walter Siccardi from Acqui and, among the artists, the guitarist Juan Carlos «Flaco» Biondini, the singer and pianist Elisabetta Gagliardi, the saxophonist Antonio Marangolo and the Alessandria choir Cor’Allievi.

The video intervention by the poet, songwriter and writer Francesco Guccini is highly anticipated. «This year the festival has a Guccinian flavor – says Alloisio -. Not just for his appearance on video: Flaco, Marangolo and I were among his closest collaborators for years. It’s a sort of return to my beginnings with the Theatrical Musical Assembly, but the reunion already took place with my recent show on the Resistance “Signora Libertà”. The three of us, with Gagliardi the fourth Musketeer, in addition to making songs, will musically support the interventions of the historic speakers: we will be their servant knights.”

A festival produced by Atid with the participation of the City of Alessandria, in collaboration with Costruire Insieme and Alexala. Free entry, in case of bad weather it will be at Palazzo Cuttica.