Art and culture
Museum
Bartolomeo d'Alviano and Umbrian Captains of Fortune Documentation Center
The museum dedicated to the leader is located in the basement of the structure, where in the past the stable and the foundry of the cannons were located: the exhibition itinerary uses modern multimedia tools based on the exhibition of documents, images, and photographic and video reproductions. The central nucleus of the exhibition revolves around the figure of Bartolomeo and his victorious career, retracing the most significant stages of the political and cultural action carried out in Pordenone, the city of which he was Lord and in which he had founded an Academy in 1508, as well as reconstructing its most important war enterprises. In particular, greater emphasis is given to the battles of Agnadello (1509) and Marignano (1515), to which two spaces are dedicated. Another room of great interest is the one that housed the stables, which still preserves the original vaults of the time, thus constituting another great example of medieval architecture.
Houses of Crete
The clay houses represent a particular housing phenomenon of Alviano, which affects the area occupied by the gullies. These buildings, which date back to the 19th century, have become the symbol of the poorest peasant civilization and of the close relationship between man and the resources of the territory; they were built, in fact, with poor materials found on site by the peasants who, in addition to the modest house they had in the village, built huts to find shelter in the fields during the summer nights. Being far from the main communication routes and the absence of sources and aquifers, it forced the Alvianesi to use the few resources that the land made available: clay, rainwater and straw, and wood for the architrave of the doors, windows and roof beams. The houses had one, maximum two rooms, furnished in a humble way with the dowry of young brides, and then were further expanded with tiny buildings to adapt to the needs of the growing family. Even today, some of these buildings are used by the villagers for various purposes, for example to keep the animals in the stable or the tools for working in the fields, while others have been recently restored and offer a quiet and extremely panoramic place to stop, perhaps to enjoy a pleasant picnic.
They have been bound by the superintendence to be safeguarded in all their aspects to continue to bear witness to the peasant civilization of the past.
They have been bound by the superintendence to be safeguarded in all their aspects to continue to bear witness to the peasant civilization of the past.
Museum of Rural Civilization The Earth and the Tool
The Museum of Peasant Civilization is also housed in the basement, in an area once used as a stable and warehouse, and was created with the aim of preserving and enhancing the knowledge of the peasant cultural heritage of this territory. The collection on display is the result of an in-depth research of the economic and social life of the place between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and includes all the tools and objects that were used in the work of the fields and in domestic life: tools related to the cultivation and harvesting of wheat, vines, oil and hemp, tools used for fishing, for the care of farmyard animals and for breeding, tools used in the most widespread craft activities at the time, etc. This museum represents an important testimony of the customs and traditions linked to the agricultural past of Alviano and its people.
In the splendid Renaissance courtyard with portico, there are other rooms of great interest: starting from the ticket office, in fact, there are three rooms in which it is possible to admire the only original frescoes of the time that have been preserved in the entire castle. These works tell us a lot about Bartolomeo's personal history, as they retrace the family's marriages and the consequent strategic alliances with the most important families of the time, such as the Orsini, and Baglioni and even the Medici. The frescoes have been attributed to Giovanni Antonio de Sacchis, known as Il Pordenone, considered the greatest Friulian painter of the sixteenth century, who stopped in Alviano on the occasion of some trips to Rome, also in the name of the friendship that bound him to Bartolomeo's family.
News
2024, November 12
A new pictorial cycle has been discovered inside the castle of Bartolomeo di Alviano and Donna Olimpia Pamphilj. The municipal administration made the announcement, referring to the discovery of the restorer Simone Deturres, who the Municipality has given the task of working on the frescoes, which could tell something new about the palace that belonged to the captain of fortune. Following surveys completed last December, new figures have emerged that shed further light on the pictorial works contained in the precious building of Alviano, whose frescoes have been among the major tourist attractions for years for those who come to visit the castle.
“Following maintenance work on the current library, we saw traces of what we thought was a fresco appear on a wall,” reports Mayor Giovanni Ciardo. “Given the value and expressive power of the other frescoes in the other rooms of the Castle,” he explains, “we thought it was right to go and investigate.” Consequently, the task was given to the cultural heritage restorer Simone Deturres who says: "I thought I would discover little more than a coat of arms above a fireplace and instead there is a pictorial cycle, all to be recovered. I carried out nineteen surveys which confirmed the presence of an extensive pictorial apparatus, similar to that of the other rooms of the Castle".
Deturres speaks of "a rather serious situation due to the effect of many concomitant factors. I can assure you however that under the plaster there is at least 60 percent of what were the original frescoes that can be recovered". The restorer adds: "we cannot yet know for what reasons they were covered, perhaps because they were damaged or because they depicted something embarrassing. Only by uncovering the scrolls and the entire fresco, as in the other rooms, will we understand more". The Castle currently has three frescoed rooms: the Unicorn Room, the Star Room and the Phoenix Room. In these frescoes, whose dating varies between 1518-1519 and 1537, symbols, Roman myths, and family crests intimately linked to the figure of Bartolomeo d’Alviano are intertwined.
Nadia Bagnarini, an art historian who edited a recent publication entitled “The castle of Alviano and its iconographic apparatus. The triumph of the Liviani dynasty”, states: “at first glance, the newly discovered frescoes are certainly part of a very complex cycle and require immediate restoration to preserve them, for the purpose of protection, enjoyment and enhancement. The figure of the bearded character (presumably a Triton), which resurfaced in one of the tests carried out, is very interesting, notable for its brushstrokes and anatomical rendering. Even more captivating is the refined image of the Nereid behind him, riding his tail. I have doubts about the painter's hand being the same as the one who painted the frescoes in the other rooms, but nothing can be ruled out, while we wait for the restoration to reveal the rest".The surveys are now complete.
Deturres' report calls for an in-depth restoration to recover the entire painted surface and hypothesizes a new passage connecting the rooms that has not yet been explored. "We are curious to discover what those plasters hide - continues Mayor Ciardo - the frescoes in the other rooms are the heart of the guided tours in the Castle and are very successful". The complex of frescoes in the Castle has also inspired a Mexican illustrator who has created a pictorial path called "Path of the Unicorn", near the village of Alviano. "Now we have to get to the bottom of it and discover what other stories are hidden behind those plasters, hoping that humidity, time, the hand of man, have not done too much damage.
Maybe we could discover other beautiful rooms like the Sala della Stella” the Mayor recalls. “This room – he adds – recalls the hope of a father, Bartolomeo di Alviano, to see “his star renewed”, his history, his greatness. “Of course, we are only at the beginning. A significant commitment is needed, both in terms of time and money. But now that we have begun to see so much beauty – Ciardo concludes – we will try all the ways to give this town one more reason to rediscover itself and be discovered”.
