THE EMIGRATION MUSEUM

OF ASSES AND ARCHANGELS by DESMOND O’GRADY

Bred and raised exclusively for a funfilled festival dedicated to Archangel Michael, asses show off their strenght and swiftness in a series of contests

“We simply wanted a work force but we received men,” a comment on Italian emigrants made by a BelgianMinister, could be the slogan of the Emigration Museum of Gualdo Tadino.
The high-tech museum, inagurated in a renovated 13th-century building last year, is the only museum of emigration in Italy. It is a surprise to find it in Gualdo Tadino and, indeed, in Umbria, because proportionately many more emigrants left from regions such as Sicily, Calabria, Friuli and the Veneto.
However Gualdo Tadino stands for the Apennine zone from which many have emigrated. And local and regional authorities have recognized the importance of the phenomenon. They have considered it worth recalling although many Italians prefer to forget those who had leave Italy to find work. Moreover, the museum is a reminder of the poor of Italy when Italy has become the goal of the poor of many other nations who, like the emigrants honored in the museum, often risk their lives to arrive, then are the object of the prejudices. The museum is not a static collection of objects. Imaginative use is made of video projections and evocative details. For instance, the experience of emigrant miners in Belgium, France, the United States and elsewhere is captured by an iron cart used in mines filled with picks, miners’ helmets, iron ore and coal. (Gualdo Tadino is “twinned” with two towns where many Umbrian emigrants became miners: Pittston in Pennsylvania and Audin Le Tiche in France).
Again, the emigrants’ voyages, often hellish, are suggested by open suitcases strewn with clothes in which there are screens where videos and a recorde commentary recount the travel experience. (Rarely seen film from Italian state broadcaster RAI and Swiss-Italian television archives enhance the museum).
The museum enables visitors to get close to the emigrant experience.
Documents such as work permits, steamer tickets and citizenship papers are not isoleted in display cases but are plastified and hung so that visitors can hold and inspect them.
Exhibits record the emigrants’ processions and other religious manifestations that were opposed at first in the United States as superstitious manifestations but were accepted eventually as demonstrations of identity.
The museum, which occupies three floors of the renovated building, concentrates on emigration from Umbria, which originally was directed to other Italian regions. Many school classes visit the museum but perhaps those who appreciate it most are returned emigrants because they see their efforts and suffering recognized and honored.

GUALDO TADINO IN UMBRIA

They say in Gualdo Tadino, “You’re an ass if you don’t go to the festival of the Four Gates”. But if you do go, you see many asses. This town in Umbria has a three-day event in which asses are the stars.
The festival starts on the Friday of the last weekend in September and getsunder way with ringing bells, rolling drums and a procession of a thousand local dressed in 15th-century costumes that are lovingly created during the year. On the first day the asses, which are raised just for this occasion, drag carts around the more than 2,500 feet-long city walls.On the last day jockeys ride the asses, bareback in a race. The winner then ignites an effigy of a witch who supposedly betrayed Gualdo Tadino to its enemies in the legendary past. In between, there are flag-throwing, slingshot, bow-and-arrow, crossbow and other contents. During the festival, the town’s population of 15,000 is more than doubled by visitors.
It is the high point of the year in Gualdo Tadino, located on a hill overlooking the ancient Roman Via Flaminia, between Assisi and Gubbio. The countdown during the one hundred days preceding the event is signaled by changing numbers on a board put up on the front of the town hall. The contest celebrates the rivalry between the four quarters of the town.
The four quarters, called after the saints who give their names to the four city gates, each have their own social centers, or taverns, where gargantuan banquets are eaten during the festival. It is all in honor of the town’s co-patron, Saint Michael the Archangel. The asses are blessed in the main square before the contests begin. The parallels with the more famous Palio horse race in Siena are obvious.
The yearly contests reinforce the identity of the quarters that make up the town. Although medieval documents mention town races, they provide few details. The contest took its present form in 1978. The associations representing each quarter involved in the contest carry out some social work during the year, such us providing care for the elderly, but of course their main aim is to win the races. In the first race, the asses pull carts weighing about 350 pounds, plus two riders, one of whom controls a brake. Some of the asses stand five feet tall, which makesthem look like horses, and they can cost more than 2,000 dollars.
At the highest point of the sloping township is the Rocca Flea, a fortress given its present shape by Emperor Frederick of Swabia (known as Barbarossa) in the 13th century. Its Civic Museum has many paintings by Matteo da Gualdo, born about 1420, whose importance has been recognized by critics only in recent years. The are also works by his son, a notary, and his notary grandson. It was a legal dynasty: Matteo’s father was the principal notary of Gualdo and Matteo himself studied law.
A recent exhibition at the Rocca Flea brought together works by Matteo from many churches in the area. The show and catalogue were entitled Matteo da Gualdo, the Eccentric Renissance between Umbria and the Marche, to indicate that there was indeed Renaissance outside major centers such as Florence. Matteo was an enterprising, eclectic painter who ran into problems with perspective. The consequence is that some of his canvasses have surreal quality. (The Boston Museum of Fine Arts have two of his paintings and the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore another.)
The amplification of the Rocca Flea by Frederick Barbarossa indicated the new importance the town acquired in the 13th century as a stopping point on the route between Rome and the Adriatic sea. In 1272, King Edward I of England, on his way back from a Crusade, stopped in Gualdo with his wife Eleanora of Castille, who gave birth to his first son there.

Gualdo’s most beautiful church, that of San Francesco, is currently under restoration. It was named for Saint Francis, who came here from Assisi. Earlier, another Umbrian, Saint Benedict, and his monks were a major influence, and the cathedral is named after him. In a side chapel is the tomb of the town’ co-patron, Blessed Angeli, a hermit who lived in the 13th to 14th century. A miracle attributed to him is repeated each year when his relicts are carried in procession throught one of the city quarters. During that week in mid-January, the hawthorns on a street where the procession passes blossom out of season. It is a confirmation of a comment by the novelist Guido Piovene that the characteristic of Umbria is that “You are constantly in contact, no matter how implicitly, with the layers and sediments of holiness... it is endemic, contagious without precise contours and not tied up with particular religion.”
Some of Gualdo’s streets have preserved their intimate character and are enhanced by arches between the houses on either side, by cascades of steps and climbing plants and flowers. Opposite the cathedral, which has preserved its 13th century façade with a rose window, is an intriguing apothecary shop that is more than a century old and features decorative motifs in Art Nouveau style.
A short distance uphill from the town is shady La Rocchetta park, where natural mineral water is available from a waterfall. It is the source of the nationally-known mineral water, Rocchetta, which drives one of the town’s main industries. There are countless other springs bubbling from mountains rising to 4,500 feet. Guido Piovene wrote that Umbria gives the impression “that you are penetrating the mythology and mysteries of the Apennines.”
The town’s other main industry is ceramics, and localware has distinctive ruby and gold colors. A collection of ceramics is on display at the Rocca Flea and it is possible to visit ceramic craftsmen in their workshops.
A few miles from Gualdo Tadino is the Totila Country Pub. It is reminder that a decisive battle was fought in this area in A.D. 552. Totila was the warrior-leader of the Germanic Goths who conquered much of Italy and seemed on the verge of uniting it, just as the Visigoths united Spain.
But the Byzantine emperor in Costantinople called back into service an old commander, Narse, an eunuch who was probably Armenian. With 40,000 men, Narse set out from Ravenna toward Rome, where Totila was in command.
Totila responded by leading his army northward from Rome. They marched for about 125 miles. He had fewer men and tried to offset this by launching a surprise attack near Gualdo Tadino, but was killed. As a result, the Byzantine-Roman empire was firmly reestablished in Italy. The Goths bequeated the name to the town-their word Wald (forest or wood) became “Gualdo”, while “Tadino” derives from the Latin name of the site. Totila, who once inspired terror, has become simply the name of a pub. Given enough time, all becomes tourism. But it is worthwhile if it kindles interest in places such as Gualdo Tadino.

UNUSUAL JEWELRY

Elisabetta Lupi has a little workshop in the heart of Gualdo Tadino, directly in front of the Museum of Emigration. Elisabetta attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and then took several courses in goldworking and in setting gemstones. She now designs jewelry in a very personal style that blends a contemporary approach with a love for natural materials. She uses wood, shells, stones and unusually cut semiprecious stones, combining them with gold or silver. Living in a region like Umbria, so rich in history and tradition, has led Elisabetta to incorporate local craftwork in her jewelry. Inspired by the ceramics of Gualdo Tadino and their age-old forms, she makes ceramic pendants in the shape of spindles.
Traditionally, this type of pendant was a suitor’s gift to his fiancèe as a token of his love. Elisabetta translates this romantic idea in an understated way as an accessory for today’s fashions. Prices range from twenty or thirty to a few thousand euros. The moderately priced are ideal as small gifts.

Sicomoro Gioielli Gualdo Tadino Tel. +39 075 913285