Tag: rites
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Nuragic – Behind the Giants
It was the time of heroes, of immortal warriors along the quartz shores of Sinis, on one side roaring and on the other as placid as the stars. It was the age of the giants, erected like vigilant sentinels of the centuries, on the threshold of worlds through life and death, flesh and stone. Hypnotic…
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The “cromlechs” of the Golasecca necropolis
The Golasecca necropolis of Monsorino is located in a wooded area of the Ticino Park, consisting mostly of chestnut and dense oak forests. It is accessed via a rough, sometimes wild path that seems to be a testimony to primordial times, to remote eras of human wandering. The forest has the characteristics of a special…
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The sanctuary of Hercules Victor in Tivoli
Since antiquity, Hercules has represented the archetype of strength and invincibility. Nevertheless, the Roman deity is associated with cultic phenomena of different manifestations, also related to agro-pastoral activities and trade. The figure of Hercules derives from a syncretism between the warrior attributes of the Greek Heracles and the sylvan attributes of the Etruscan god Hercules.…
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The Parish Church of Gropina and the Lombard pulpit
The Parish Church of San Pietro in Gropina, in the Valdarno, is as bare as a tree shaken by the wind on a winter morning. Nothing shows, except the mighty stone that has stood for centuries. There are no paintings, no colours, only a soft penumbra that pervades the spaces, fills every perspective of spiritual…
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The Hermitage of Santa Caterina del Sasso
A fascinating sheer cliff, known as Sasso Ballaro, overlooks the shores of Lake Maggiore. The rock slopes downwards with its two hundred and sixty-eight steps. Suddenly, like an ecstatic revelation, a glimpse of infinite beauty appears. The landscape is majestic, and the mountains are reflected like diamonds in the calm waters of the lake; there…
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The Cross Pattée of the Knights Templar
During the Crusades, soldiers and pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem were used to sew a small cross on their chests or cloaks. However, the term ‘crusade’ was only used long after the first expedition to the Holy Land, probably around 1250 [1], because of this symbol. The cross attested to the condition of martyrdom and sacrifice…
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The megalithic walls of Alatri, where stone is timeless
The civita of Alatri stood on the slope of a hill above a stream, a branch of the Liri river. There, five hundred metres above the sea level, was the acropolis of the ancient city. Still visible are the quadrangular base of a small temple in Tuscan order, a reconstruction of which is now in…
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Tempio civico dell’Incoronata and the symbolisms of Lodi
In Via Incoronata in Lodi, in the 15th century known as Contrada de’ Lomellini, there was a brothel. However, the intriguing aspect was not the common practice of erecting such places for the enjoyment of rich citizens, but rather that, just in front of a load-bearing wall facing the street, there was a crowned Madonna…
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The Lunigiana stele statues
An anthropomorphic figure, which seems to have re-emerged from a forgotten and primitive age of man, stares at visitors with an enigmatic archaic smile. The statue, made of sandstone, has a semicircular head; its stylised face has a simple U-shape, but mysteriously takes on an expressiveness that transcends time, and seems to look into the…