Ludika 1243: the curtain rises tomorrow
Two days after the start, the location for the pitched battle is still missing
03/07/2024 – 07:40
by Andrea Farronato
VITERBO – ”Live your Middle Ages”. With this phrase, Deputy Mayor Alfonso Antoniozzi introduces the 24th edition of Ludika, which this year will take place from Thursday 4 July to Sunday 7 July. Despite the difficulties and delays encountered in the organization, Antoniozzi states: ”This year, Ludika has been held in Viterbo for 10 years, and I don’t want technical delays to cause difficulties for associations like Ludika and Proloco”.
Serenella Bovi, responsible for the Ludika 1243 event, adds: ”We are ready to face the difficulties encountered because next year Ludika will celebrate 25 years of events in the area. We would like to renew ourselves, inviting people who have participated in past editions, organizing an important party.” She adds, ”Ludika is an eagerly awaited event in Viterbo and for us it represents a way of recalling history and playing with it, bringing both children and adults together.”
The name of the festival, ‘Ludika 1243’, refers to the year in which Viterbo was the scene of the great siege of the Ghibellines led by Frederick II of Swabia. The festival will take place in the San Pellegrino district, considered one of the most beautiful and best preserved medieval districts in Italy. The squares and streets of the district will be the beating heart of the festival.
Antoniozzi suggests: ”Ludika is not the kind of festival where you just go to do one thing; the real experience consists in spending hours discovering what the event has to offer”.
Every day in Ludika there will be live role-playing games, escape rooms and live dungeons curated by Battle for Vilegis. There will be a playroom curated by ‘La Tana degli Orchi’ and Dracarys, with the street theater festival and the commedia dell’arte festival. It will also be possible to rent period costumes to parade through the streets of the historic center.
This year’s novelties include a medieval village at Paradosso, a prize for the best costume in memory of Serenella Bovi’s mother, ”a milestone that until last year enriched Ludika with her hand-sewn clothes”, her daughter recalls, and a photography competition entitled ”Seize the Moment”.
Finally, the Pitched Battle will take place on July 7th. However, due to ongoing construction, it will no longer take place outside the walls of Faul Valley like last year, and a new location has not yet been announced.
