Beyond geography: when history unites territories. Mantua, Sabbioneta and Monferrato

The conference "Beyond geography: when history unites territories" will be held on Saturday 22 June at 5pm at the Teatro all'Antica in Sabbioneta. Mantua, Sabbioneta and Monferrato”. 

The organization is by the Sabbioneta Heritage Foundation and the “Marchesi del Monferrato” Cultural Club of Alessandria. The meeting is coordinated by Alberto Sarzi Madidini and enjoys the patronage of the Municipality of Sabbioneta, the Pro Loco Association, the Monferrato Live Experience Foundation (the president Alessandra Bozzo will be present), the UNESCO Mantua Sabbioneta Office, the Province of Alessandria and the Historical Group of the City of Sabbioneta (represented by costumed figures). The event is organized in memory of Roberto Maestri, president of the Marchesi del Monferrato Cultural Club, who tragically passed away a few years ago on the way back between Mantua and Alessandria. The current president, Emiliana Conti, will illustrate the club's twenty years of activity. The links between Monferrato, a territory today mainly included in the provinces of Alessandria and Asti, and the Mantua area date back to the domination of the Gonzaga family to whom it belonged from 1536 to 1708. Between 1567 and 1568 Vespasiano Gonzaga was delegated the leadership of the Piedmontese territory for repress the riots that broke out against the Gonzaga domination. Alberto Sarzi Madidini will illustrate the relationships that have existed between Sabbioneta and Monferrato in these five centuries, from Vespasiano Gonzaga to Roberto Maestri (even the most illustrious native character of Sabbioneta, General Giuseppe Ottolenghi, belongs to a family originally from Acqui Terme) . Two scholars, Angelo Soave and Raffaele Tamalio, will talk respectively about the pictorial art of Giulio Romano's school which arrived in the Mantuan Monferrato and about the marital strategies and transfers between Mantua and Monferrato of noble families between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The meeting will be closed by Massimo Carcione, official of the Department of Culture of the Piedmont Region and historical collaborator of Roberto Maestri, with a report on the Heritage Communities of Mantua, Sabbioneta and Monferrato, active subjects for the protection of cultural landscapes and sites UNESCO heritage. 

The conference has free admission and is open to all. 

For any information contact the Infopoint 0375 221044 – [email protected]