Description
The Museo dei Misteri holds the heart of Campobasso's best-loved festival: the iron "ingegni" that, on Corpus Christi Sunday, carry children dressed as saints, angels and devils in procession, seeming to fly above the crowd.
In the main hall stand the thirteen Misteri, the structures that parade every year. Each stages an episode from the Bible or a saint: they are trees of wrought iron, with harnesses among the branches that hold the children up in midair.
They are heavy. They range from about 340 kilos for San Rocco, the lightest, to 644 for San Nicola, and each one is carried on the shoulders of teams of volunteers.
In the entrance hall are the performers' period costumes and historic photographs of the festival. The screening room shows processions filmed in years far apart, from 1929 to 2006.
The museum is not just a showcase. On the day of the festival the children are dressed and strapped to the ingegni right here, and the procession sets off from here and returns here. The rest of the year, the structures rest in its halls.
The genius behind the Misteri is Paolo Saverio Di Zinno, an 18th-century sculptor from Campobasso. Before him, the tradition was tableaux vivants: the faithful in costume, holding a pose, to tell the stories of the faith.
Di Zinno imagined lifting them into the air. He designed twenty-four machines, forged by the city's blacksmiths from a flexible and extremely strong alloy he worked out himself. Six broke almost at once and another six were lost in the 1805 earthquake.
The choice of saints tells of the Campobasso of the time: Saint Isidore protects farmers, Saint Crispin craftsmen, Saint Leonard the innocent, Saint Roch the sick.
During the procession the ingegni advance at a measured pace through the narrow streets of the historic center, to the rhythm of the march from Rossini's Moses, by now the festival's soundtrack.
The museum, in the city center, opened on October 7, 2006.
In the main hall stand the thirteen Misteri, the structures that parade every year. Each stages an episode from the Bible or a saint: they are trees of wrought iron, with harnesses among the branches that hold the children up in midair.
They are heavy. They range from about 340 kilos for San Rocco, the lightest, to 644 for San Nicola, and each one is carried on the shoulders of teams of volunteers.
In the entrance hall are the performers' period costumes and historic photographs of the festival. The screening room shows processions filmed in years far apart, from 1929 to 2006.
The museum is not just a showcase. On the day of the festival the children are dressed and strapped to the ingegni right here, and the procession sets off from here and returns here. The rest of the year, the structures rest in its halls.
The genius behind the Misteri is Paolo Saverio Di Zinno, an 18th-century sculptor from Campobasso. Before him, the tradition was tableaux vivants: the faithful in costume, holding a pose, to tell the stories of the faith.
Di Zinno imagined lifting them into the air. He designed twenty-four machines, forged by the city's blacksmiths from a flexible and extremely strong alloy he worked out himself. Six broke almost at once and another six were lost in the 1805 earthquake.
The choice of saints tells of the Campobasso of the time: Saint Isidore protects farmers, Saint Crispin craftsmen, Saint Leonard the innocent, Saint Roch the sick.
During the procession the ingegni advance at a measured pace through the narrow streets of the historic center, to the rhythm of the march from Rossini's Moses, by now the festival's soundtrack.
The museum, in the city center, opened on October 7, 2006.