Long Ago in Spoleto: Unesco Decade for the Basilica of San Salvatore

June 25, 2021 News, Offerte, Visore Home No comments

25 June 2011. Ten years of a historic date: When Spoleto entered the UNESCO World Heritage List

Exactly ten years have passed since, with a tweet shortly after ten o’clock in the evening on Saturday 25 June 2011, from its headquarters in Paris in Place de Fontenoy, UNESCO informed the world that the serial site “Longobards in Italy”, which includes the Basilica of San Salvatore in Spoleto and the Tempietto sul Clitunno, had been included in the World Heritage List, a list of the most important and significant material or natural assets of the countries of the world, a heritage of monuments, landscapes and artistic works considered fundamental for humanity.

Basilica San Salvatore | Facciata e scalinata

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This is a prestigious recognition awarded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation to sites of particular and exceptional importance. Being on the List means being recognised as having one of the most precious historical-artistic heritages in history, it means becoming part of a cultural circuit of absolute value that involves exposure and visibility on a planetary level, and it also means being able to count on actions and projects of protection, enhancement and cultural and educational promotion of the highest order.

On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of that date we propose a special episode of the columns “Long Ago in Spoleto” and “At Home with the Longobards”, to celebrate that exciting moment.

Everything began at the end of 2007 for Spoleto, when, prompted by MIBACT, an initial candidacy by the “Longobard” cities of Cividale del Friuli and Brescia was extended to include other testimonies of Longobard civilisation in Italy, including Spoleto, capital of one of the most important Longobard duchies in the peninsula. Intensive planning and writing work led to the preparation of one of the most complex and innovative dossiers ever submitted to UNESCO, a serial site whose official candidature was presented in January 2008.

In 2009, the candidacy was examined by an inspection body appointed by UNESCO, ICOMOS, which suggested some improvements. In the case of Spoleto, for example, the idea is to extend the buffer zone – which is supposed to “guarantee an additional level of protection for World Heritage Sites” – to the entire historic centre of the city.

In June 2009 the “Italia Langobardorum” Association was established in Spoleto, a structure with the task of managing the serial site and implementing the objectives and actions set out in the UNESCO Candidacy Management Plan and its subsequent implementations. Spoleto became a centre for the coordination, assembly and drafting of texts useful for the re-submission of the candidacy at the beginning of 2011.

La proclamazione all'UNESCO | 25 giugno 2011

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During the 5th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, on 25 June 2011, Spoleto, together with Benevento, Brescia, Campello sul Clitunno, Castelseprio, Cividale del Friuli and Monte Sant’Angelo, joined the list of sites declared to be of outstanding universal value, with the satisfaction, pride and responsibility of seeing its history, heritage and identity being appreciated by the international community and once again being admired by the eyes of the world.

On Friday 6 July 2012, in the square next to the basilica, a plaque was unveiled in the public ceremony of inscription of San Salvatore into the UNESCO serial site.

An exceptional prelude to the fertile link between Spoleto and the knowledge of Longobard culture occurred in 1951 when, in September, the Accademia Spoletina organised the First International Congress of Longobard Studies in Palazzo Mauri. This extraordinary initiative gave rise to CISAM, the Italian Centre for Early Medieval Studies, a cultural institution in Spoleto that is still an essential point of reference for medieval research worldwide and that we will discuss in another episode of Long Ago in Spoleto.

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