FOURTH EDITION INTERNATIONAL TEMPLARS FESTIVAL – THE WOMEN OF THE TEMPLE – Alessandria, Friday 5 and Saturday 6 July 2024
Historians and singers, writers and reenactors, poets and musicians will meet in Alessandria on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 July in the splendid setting of Santa Maria di Castello, on the occasion of the fourth edition of the “International Festival of the Templars”. Over the course of three events, they will tell the story, the mystery and the legend of the famous friar-knights of the Middle Ages, still present in our collective imagination.
The direction entrusted to Simonetta Cerrini, historian and essayist, and Gian Piero Alloisio, playwright and singer-songwriter, has prepared a program that includes an afternoon meeting and show conferences in the evening; in the unfortunate case of bad weather, the events will take place regularly in the tensile structure set up in Palazzo Cuttica, where the meeting with the authors on Saturday 6 July is still scheduled; the “Il Libraccio” bookshop of Alessandria will be present at the Festival with a wide choice of books dedicated to the topics covered.
The Festival has obtained the patronage of the University of Eastern Piedmont and is produced by ATID with the support of the City of Alessandria and the Cassa di Risparmio di Alessandria Foundation, the collaboration of ASM Costruire Insieme and Alexala, and is also part of the Templars Route European Federation (TREF); they collaborate with the Neighborhood House of Alessandria (Community of San Benedetto al Porto), Diocese of Alessandria, the Libraccio, the Cloister Hostel & Hotel, the Hotel Alli Due Buoi Rossi (agreed rates for Festival spectators)Monferrato Palace, Piovera Castle.
Admission is free, but reservations are recommended on the eventbrite website: https://www.eventbrite.it/e/festival-internazionale-dei-templari-iv-edizione-le-donne-del-tempio-tickets-910356981237?aff=ebdsshcopyurl&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=&utm-share-source=mobile-search-results
MEETING WITH THE SPEAKERS Saturday 6 July – 4.15pm – Civic Museum – Palazzo Cuttica
- presentation Templars Route European Federation with Valérie Alanièce, François Gilet, Simonetta Cerrini;
- presentation of Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli’s books, Head covered. Stories of women and veils (il Mulino 2016) and, with L. Molà and G. Riello, All the pearls of the world. Stories of travel, exchanges and magnificent ornamentsi, (il Mulino 2023). The author talks with Simonetta Cerrini; copies will be signed;
- remote connection with Dacia Maraini, who will talk about her recent book My life (Rizzoli 2023).
CONFERENCES-SHOWS ““THE WOMEN OF THE TEMPLE” Friday 5th and Saturday 6th July – 9.00 pm – Piazza Santa Maria di Castello
Was it possible that an Order that was already paradoxical in itself, which had revolutionized medieval patterns by uniting in one person the religious and the fighter, the warrior and the monk, could welcome women into its ranks? And in any case, did Templar sisters really exist? Templar nuns? Nuns, sisters, wives, servants, lovers, saints and queens: what was the attitude of the famous friar-knights towards women? To which saints did the Templars dedicate their churches, whose saints did they preserve the relics, which saints did they pray to?
In Alessandria the worlds of historians and artists will come together in two evening shows, on Friday “The sisters of the Temple” is Saturday “Mary the Templars” to tell how the most fascinating knight friars of the Middle Ages met the faces of women.
Among the speakers: Simonetta Cerrini doctor from the Sorbonne-Paris-IVthe medievalist Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli (pprofessor at Alma Mater, former professor of Medieval History at the University of Bolognascholar of the history of culture, fashion and the role of women in the Middle Ages, on the scientific committee of Passato e Presente RAI 3); Don Stefano Tessaglia, a professor at the University of Eastern Piedmont and a scholar of the relationship between religion and society, will lead us to discover a treasure from Alessandria; from France, the Templar commendation of Avalleur, Valérie Alanièce, a scholar of the the sisters of the Temple in Champagne, founder and vice-secretary of the Templars Route European Federation, and François Gilet, investigator of the origins of the Templars; furthermore, the writer, poet and playwright Dacia Maraini, winner of the Super Campiello Prize and the Strega Prize, candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, will connect remotely; Video interventions are planned by Helen Nicholson, emerita of Cardiff University, one of the greatest scholars of the Templars, and by the singer-songwriter Francesco Guccini.
The evenings’ script will include interventions by speakers and songs by authors, readings, theatrical pieces and performances. Among the artists: Gian Piero Alloisio, the Argentine musician and singer Juan Carlos “Flaco” Biondini (Francesco Guccini’s historical guitarist)the singer and pianist from Alessandria Elisabetta Gagliardi, the saxophonist and novelist Antonio Marangolo (arranger of Paolo Conte and musician of Francesco Guccini); the Alessandria choir Cor’Allevi directed by Rita Maria Ferraris; the historical re-enactors of the Mansio Templi Parmensis 1275 company who will represent moments in the life of the Templars; The association of re-enactors Custodes Viarum will also be present.
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