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Piazza Santa Croce Itinerari PIAZZE FIRENZE e 11 October 2009 nell’800 MUSICA Piazza Santa Croce The 19th Century Florence itineraries: Squares and Music 11 October 2009 The 19th Century Florence 1859 Piazza Santa Croce itineraries – designed significantly 11.30 am to coincide with the150th anniversary of the unification of 2009 Tuscany to the newly born unified state (1859 – 2009) – will take citizens and tourists on the discovery of the traces of Fanfara (Brass band) a Century that left a profound of the Scuola Marescialli impression on the face of e Brigadieri dell’Arma Florence. dei Carabinieri The idea is to restore the role of 19th Century Florence within the collective imagination, alongside the Florence of Medieval and Renaissance times. This is why one Band of the of the Century’s typical customs Military Corps of the will be renewed: the military band Italian Red Cross concert in a city square. Fanfara (Brass band) of the Scuola Marescialli e Brigadieri The Band of the Military Corps of the Italian Red Cross dell’Arma dei Carabinieri The Band of the Military Corps of the Italian Red Cross of Tuscany was founded in The brass band of the Scuola Marescialli e Brigadieri dei Carabinieri is one Florence in the year 2000 on the initiative of the Command of the VIII Mobilisation of the five Carabinieri bands whose origin lies in the buglers of the various Centre and is heir to the musical traditions of the General Band Corps of the Legions of the Carabinieri, from which the first bands were later formed with Italian Red Cross founded in 1871. It is made up of 45 musicians, voluntarily brass and percussion instruments. Today the Brass Band – based in Florence enrolled in the Military Corps as musicians, and is called to accompany the at the School with the same name – is a small band with a varied repertoire ceremonies, shows and institutional services of the organisation. Its repertoire (symphonies, operas, film sound tracks as well as blues and jazz), especially includes celebratory pieces (hymns and marches), traditional military and civil trained for its main activity: the performance of ceremonies with assemblies music, light music and jazz. It has been conducted, ever since it began, by the and marches typical of military music. The band wears the so-called Grande Maestro Maresciallo Mauro Rosi who was also responsible for the transcription, Uniforme Speciale, a very special uniform with its typical hat known as the revision and adaptation of the Italian red Cross Hymn composed by Ruggero “lucerna” (cocked hat) and the red and white plume that sets it apart from the Leoncavallo, as well as being author of the March of the Military Corps of the musicians of other units of the Carabinieri (red-blue plume). Italian Red Cross entitled La Condivisione. On the 2nd June 2008, for the Festa The band is conducted by Maresciallo Ennio Robbio. della Repubblica, the band paraded in Rome at the head of the Military Corps, Voluntary Nursing and Voluntary Rescue sections of the Italian Red Cross. 11 October 2009 Piazza Santa Croce The theme of the itinerary is the Basilica of Santa Croce and the symbolic value it acquired in the 19th century as the pantheon of national glories. PIAZZE e Assessorato al Turismo 10.15 am Piazza Santa Croce, opening of the information stand, where bookings MUSICA can be made for the afternoon tours of the 19th-century features in the basilica. 10.30 am Piazza Signoria, military units form ranks, initial parade ground display Con la partecipazione di 11.00 am Units leave Piazza Signoria for Piazza Santa Croce, marching through Piazza San Firenze and down Borgo de’ Greci. 11.30 am Units arrive in Piazza Santa Croce, form ranks and commence display. Produced by: Ufficio Promozione Turistica, 12.15 am End of display, departure of units for Via Magliabechi. Ufficio Centro Storico Unesco, (Hours are only approximate and can change slightly) Opera di Santa Croce 15/15.30 pm - 16/16.30 pm In collaborazione con Texts: beginning of guided tours of the 19th-century commemorative C. Francini, G. De Micheli, features of Santa Croce.. A. Giordani, G. M. Manetti. The guided tours can also be booked by telephone on 055 2654753 e-mail: as from Monday 5 October. [email protected] For over seven hundred symbol of the unity of the of illustrious figures A piazza years the large Gothic- new nation. (from Michelangelo style Franciscan Santa Croce preserves to Galileo, Rossini to and its Church of Santa Croce the memory of the Foscolo, Machiavelli to has represented and roots of a culture and of Alfieri) in the exceptional church summed up the history of values which, following frame produced by Florence. Expressions of the unification of Italy, the great 14th-century the spiritual, artistic and subsequently shaped and Florentine painters of the civic life of the city blend educated generations Giotto School. An integral together in the church of Italians. Described by part of the basilica is the with such originality and Foscolo as the ‘temple piazza outside, a major profundity that in the of Italian glories’, Santa focus in the life of the 19th century it became a Croce houses the tombs city. Exploring a century. Guided tours 19th-century Canova carved the Monu- 1851 after the sculptor’s commemorative artwork ment to Vittorio Alfieri. One death. But perhaps his in Santa Croce of the finest expressions greatest masterpiece is the What took place in the city of neo-classic sculpture, Tomb of Sofia Zamoyska centre from the early dec- it features Italy Weeping, (1837–1844). His sensitive ades of the 19th century which embodies the spirit engagement with Santa onwards with the setting of Foscolo’s Sepulchres. Croce’s two fine humanis- up of a series of celebrative Inspired by Canova’s tribute tic tombs (by Desiderio da monuments in the city’s to Alfieri, Sebastiano Ricci Settignano and Rossellino) piazzas had already been produced the Monument is reflected in the ethical accomplished, and with to Dante Alighieri between composure of the Polish greater success, inside 1818 and 1830. The project princess and in the Madon- Santa Croce. Just some of was keenly supported by na and Child of the tondo. the most significant monu- Giacomo Leopardi, while Pio Fedi’s Monument to ments can be mentioned the necessary funding was Giovan Battista Nicco- here. raised through public sub- lini also commands great The Tomb of scriptions. interest. Together with Machiavelli Lorenzo Bartolini, Poetic Liberty, it set the by Innocenzo the most cele- precedent – the cast dates Spinazzi (1787) brated Floren- to 1872 – for the more fa- represents – tine sculptor mous Statue of Liberty in especially in of the 19th New York by the French the allegori- century, was sculptor Frédéric Auguste cal figure of responsible Bartholdi. Its radial diadem Politics – an for a number was a response to Canova’s eloquent of works in Santa Italy Weeping. example of the Croce, including The great pantheon suf- (g.c.) Quattrone Foto transition to- the Monument to fered a major blow in the reliefs in proximity to the such as Constantine and wards the next Leon Battista 1960s, when it was decided doors. The Triumph of the Mary Magdalene, but also century when, Alberti, which to remove the funerary Cross (1861) above the Dante and Saint Francis. between 1804 was put into monuments from the clois- central door, produced by Outside in the piazza there and 1810, position in ters. Only some of these the Sienese sculptor Gio- is a statue of Dante Aligh- were relocated to their cur- vanni Duprè, is perhaps ieri by the sculptor Enrico rent site in an underground the most celebrated. The Pazzi from Ravenna. It was corridor of the first cloister. shining cross, surrounded erected in the centre of the One of the works that did by angels, illuminates the square in 1865, but more remain in the cloister was protagonists of the scene: than a hundred years later the Monument to Girolamo the freed slave and the sav- was moved onto the steps Segato, also by Bartolini. age. Around them are vari- linking the piazza and the Sited there in 1877, the ous figures associated in basilica. Belluno scientist is de- some way with the Cross, picted as a large Medusa, a direct reference to his abil- ity to “petrify” anatomical specimens. Finally, mention must be made of the impressive achievement of the neo- Gothic façade (1857–1863). The marble revestment by Nicola Matas was enriched with complex sculptural decoration that reached a peak in the three bas-.
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