VIATORES - Musical and interdisciplinary paths through the Isonzo bioregion / Terzo d'Aquileia

VIATORES is a six-stage journey through the areas marked by the Soča river. Each stage offers a nature or historical excursion accompanied by a guide and a concert with ancient instruments in one of the many ancient churches in the Isonzo area.

6.30 p.m. Meeting point: square in front of the Church of San Martino Guided tour by Saimon Ferfolja [eco-naturalistic guide]: ‘Rivers, irrigation ditches and fountains in the peri-urban landscape: a nature walk through the lands of Aquileia and Terzo d'Aquileia’. The so-called ‘Bassa’ (lowlands) is a very interesting territory from many points of view; although it is highly anthropised, it encloses noteworthy naturalistic pearls.

A Water Walk that will allow us to discover the ancient canals and irrigation ditches, already used in Roman times, remnants of the ancient Planizial Forests that once covered our plain, the Ausa River and much more. 8 p.m. Church of S. Martino di Terzo d'Aquileia Bilingual prologue by Caterina Trovato on architecture and iconography In the hamlet of San Martino di Terzo d'Aquileia is the Church dedicated to St Martin of Tours, located near the ancient Via Annia.

Its origins may date back to the 11th century and fragments of two fresco cycles dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries are still preserved. 

At the end of the 15th century, the presbytery was built and the church was later frescoed again. Between the 17th and 18th century, the church was enlarged and elevated and the current bell tower was probably built. Along the nave, fresco cycles from the 13th and 14th centuries are visible.

The other frescoes decorating the Lady Chapel, part of the right aisle, the entire presbytery and the apse belong to the period from the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century. The frescoes in the apse and the presbytery belong to the painting current known as Tolmezzina, which had its major impulse from Domenico Mioni da Tolmezzo and Gianfrancesco del Zotto; those on the right side of the nave and the chapel of the Madonna are associated with the school of Pellegrino da San Daniele.

To follow: Concert by the Dramsam Ensemble: Non fu mai più bel sollazzo IV music and popular devotion between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Beginning in the 9th century, forms of popular devotion began to emerge that would find massive diffusion with the Franciscan movement of the 13th century and with the birth of the confraternities, groups of faithful that adopted forms of prayer and devotion often far removed from the officiality of ecclesiastical rites.

The salient feature of these extraliturgical forms of prayer is the use of everyday language for texts accompanied by music, a form known as ‘lauda’ that continued to be practised until the 18th century and that often relied on popular musical repertoires, including dance music. The programme Non fu mai più bel sollazzo presents in four episodes the different forms of lauda practised from the late Middle Ages to the late Renaissance.

The concert is accompanied by detailed information on the sources, the musical instruments used (all faithful copies of the instruments in use at the time), and the functions and characteristics of the laudatory repertoire.

Ensemble Dramsam Alessandra Cossi: Voice, synphony, percussion Marco Ferrari Flutes, bagpipes Fabio Tricomi: Vielle, flutes, percussion Fabio Accurso: Lutes, direction Discover all the events of the review: www.dramsam.org/viatores