Where nature and museums meet: this is the project "Protagonists of nature" of the Regional Directorate of Museums of Lombardy, the institution of the Ministry of Culture which manages 13 state museums in Lombardy. The director Emanuela Daffra is preparing, for next year, the project that will combine cultural and natural heritage and will involve 6 of the 13 museums.
“One of the most surprising aspects of our heritage – he underlined Emanuela Daffra – is the mingling of nature and culture, the indissoluble link between the natural environment and human action, which permeates the Lombardy region creating unique landscapes. The "Protagonists in nature" project aims to combine art, archeology, history and nature, with a truly unique feature: the participant will not limit himself to listening to experts or walking in the countryside, but will be the protagonist of a precise, manual action. When I think of our protagonists, I think above all of young families, who choose to enjoy a weekend together dedicated to art and history, but in direct contact with nature".
The big debut is expected from spring of the 2023. But the Management has scheduled two events in November, to test the formula and the public's response, and which will have the Lombard museums as a point of reference: Saturday 12 November appointment with the chestnuts and Saturday 19 November at the Grotte di Catullo for the gleaning of olives. Participation in the activities is free. The payment of the entrance ticket to the museum is required.
Museums of Lombardy: Saturday 12 November appointment to collect chestnuts
That's what the first date is for Saturday 12 November at 14, at the National Park of Rock Engravings of Naquane, in Capo di Ponte. An afternoon dedicated to archeology but above all to chestnuts and the chestnut groves that characterize the area. Alessandro Ducoli, Adamello Park expert, will accompany visitors inside the Park itself, illustrating the forest management interventions that are carried out there. At the end, everyone is invited to collect chestnuts, which they can then take home.
Museums of Lombardy: Saturday 19 November at the Grotte di Catullo for olive gleaning
Saturday 19 November at 10.30, however, at the Grotte di Catullo in Sirmione, Nicola Castoldi, the agronomist who takes care of the historic olive grove, will accompany the public in the practice of gleaning which follows the moment of harvesting the olive. It will also be an opportunity to discover the centuries-old history of the 876 ancient olive trees, some with at least six centuries of life behind them, which populate the peninsula jutting out onto Lake Garda on which the Grotte di Catullo stand.
Some of the main works kept in the Lombardy Museums
Il Last Supper Museum houses the mural painting that Leonardo da Vinci created on a wall of the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie. In 1980 the Last Supper, the church and the neighboring convent were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Il Certosa Museum preserves and offers on display numerous works of art, all from the Certosa di Pavia: from the fourteenth-century frescoes of Bernardino de Rossi to fascinating paintings by luini, Bergognone e Bartholomew Montagna; from the numerous Renaissance sculptures to a rich collection of nineteenth-century plaster casts that reproduce details of the facade and cloisters, thus allowing them to be appreciated more thoroughly, up to the refined Studiolo Ducale, entirely frescoed with motifs that recall the painting of ancient Rome.
La Expiatory Chapel it was commissioned by Vittorio Emanuele III, son and successor of Umberto I, to commemorate the place where his father was killed by the anarchist Gaetano Bresci on 29 July 1900. The monument consists of a crypt and a chapel, surmounted by a stele.
Palace Besta it is a splendid example of a Renaissance palace: its interiors are decorated with cycles of frescoes with biblical, mythological and historical subjects dating back to the sixteenth century. There are also four typical Valtellina stüe. The ground floor houses theAntiquarium Tellinum, collection of engraved stelae from the Copper Age.
