Among the latest novelties dedicated to Bergamo and aimed at the young public (starting from 10 years old, but also enjoyable for those who are older), The illustrated volume “Oltre le Mura” has just arrived in bookstores. A boy in the sixteenth century in Bergamo” (Grafica & Arte Bergamo, 15 euros, 128 pages). The author is Vittoria Roberta Zanferrari, who dedicates this editorial effort above all to the students of the lower secondary schools, the same ones where he teaches, while the illustrations are due to the creativity of Simone Lisi.
«The idea was born a bit by chance, first for fun, then with the intention of addressing my text to kids. As a teacher, I realized that students know little about their territory… but the Walls are so imposing that one cannot help but deepen their knowledge”, confides Zanferrari. From here, against the backdrop of the second half of the 16th century, the Renaissance which is also the “golden century of the Serenissima”, crucial for Italian and European history, a singular story unfolds, between history and fantasy, starting from the decision – desired by the Republic of Venice – to transform Bergamo, a border town in need of a defensive system for various reasons, into a fortified city capable of resisting any assault: a “mountain fortress”. This is the feat of building the Venetian walls.
It was certainly not the first city wall, but at least the fourth: the first dated back to Roman times and protected only the Upper City; the second to the medieval era, always to defend the Upper City; the third, that of the Muraine, built between the 12th and 13th centuries around the Lower City, of which practically only the Torre del Galgario remains. It could even be the fifth, if we remember that at the end of 1526 a plan was put into action to fortify Bergamo “in the modern style”, with the commitment of a captain in the pay of the Serenissima, Francesco Maria I Della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (a bastion circuit of which no trace remains, but which is impossible to ignore). In any case, the new fortification proved to be a costly strategic operation, which lasted for twenty-seven years, from 1561 to 1588. Vittoria Roberta Zanferrari’s story focuses in particular on the first of these years, when the project began to be implemented and everything began at the hands of the governor general Count Sforza Pallavicino (exactly on 1 September 1561).
This is more or less the story, while the key character of the book is a product of fantasy: a boy in the service of Giovanni Battista Brembatia man of arms who lived in the sixteenth century. And this boy – named Bartolomeo – will be involved throughout the pages in events full of twists and turns, together with a handful of close friends.
«Throughout the book, Bartolomeo does nothing but dream of new horizons and Roberta precisely describes his various states of mind, brushing them through the story, this damned real one, of the first year of construction of the Walls of Bergamo, which now appear joyfully majestic , but then they caused too much pain and tears as if it were raining”, observes the journalist and writer Pier Carlo Capozzi in the preface, well aware that each of those ancient stones continues to speak to us. Indicating two desires among the many expressed by the author: the first, “to discover the period in which, above every access door, the Lion of San Marco was re-sculpted, destroyed by Napoleon’s troops and subsequently restored”. The second, «to urge greater protection of the column in Via della Noca, with the engraving “Non latius” (no further), which ordered not to go beyond that limit when demolishing houses to make room for the Venetian Walls».
