Today, 10 October 2022, in the council chamber of the Municipality of Viterbo, in the presence of Mayor Chiara Frontini, Alessandra Croci, city councillor and delegate of the Via Francigena Tuscia Association, Silvio Franco, the councillor for economic development, and Marco Bruzziches, city councillor, Cinzia Chiulli, Viterbo ceramic artist, presented her work “A monument dedicated to the pilgrims crossing the Via Francigena. The first in Viterbo”.
This will be one of the most significant moments of the three-day event dedicated to the general assembly of the European Association of the Via Francigena, to be held in the City of the Popes from 13 to 15 October 2022.
“On 13 October,” said Alessandra Croci, “the delegates will arrive, and in the afternoon they will visit the Percorsi Artistici workshop of ceramicist Cinzia Chiulli, to leave their signature on the Pilgrim’s stone. At 9:15pm, there will be a flag-waving display in the town square.”
“On 14 October,” Croci continued, “the Lazio delegates of the Francigena will meet in the council chamber of Palazzo dei Priori to work out a shared development strategy for the general assembly.”
Finally, on 15 October, the inauguration of the monument to the pilgrim of the Via Francigena. At 9am, at the entrance to Viterbo along the Cassia Nord.
Following this, a guided walk with archaeologists and anthropologists will set off from Strada Signorino, arriving at Ponte Camillario and the shrine of Saints Valentino and Ilario”.
The monument, 2.80 metres long and 2.10 metres high, is preceded by silhouettes set into the ground that reproduce pilgrims’ footsteps – part of the YOUR STEP IS ALREADY HISTORY project – bearing the signatures pilgrims have left over the past 4 years at the Percorsi Artistici workshop of Cinzia Chiulli at Via San Pellegrino, 27. Many peperino slabs, footprints bearing a signature, that mark the passage of pilgrims through our city of Viterbo.
“Being chosen to host the European assembly,” Mayor Chiara Frontini stressed, “means putting Viterbo at the centre of a development model. The Mayor of Canterbury, Ilover Thomas, will be present, along with other mayors from places crossed by the Via Francigena.”
“An event,” Silvio Franco concluded, “that should be seen as an integral part of an overall vision of our development model.”
