International Templar Festival: Alessandria revives medieval myth with history and performances

The charming medieval square of Santa Maria di Castello , in Alessandria, Piedmont , hosted the fifth edition of the International Festival of the Templars , directed by the historian Simonetta Cerrini and the playwright and singer-songwriter Gian Piero Alloisio.

Three days of meetings , shows, music and reenactments to tell the fascinating myth of the Templars , from the Middle Ages to Napoleon, from Jerusalem to Hollywood, and through the literature of Umberto Eco.

The festival opened with the lecture-performance "The Templar Legacy from the Middle Ages to Napoleon." Simonetta Cerrini recounted the history of the Templar friars, from their founding in 1120 to their suppression in 1312, offering a new interpretation of the reasons that led King Philip the Fair to destroy the Order.

Gian Piero Alloisio voiced Philip the Fair with a monologue taken from his play "The Last Act of the Templars," while young soprano Chiara Sorce, accompanied by pianist Rodrigo Leal, performed a Mozart piece.

The evening was enriched by the arrival in the square of Emperor Napoleon (Roberto Colla) and Empress Josephine Beauharnais (Maria Cristina Preti) , escorted by the Templar reenactors Custodes Viarum.

This was followed by a video intervention by Emeritus Professor Helen Nicholson on the link between the Grail and the Templars , a presentation on the Order's seals by expert Arnaud Baudin, and a musical moment with Alloisio and Gianni Martini, Giorgio Gaber's historic guitarist, who performed "The Dream and the Rose", a piece written with Ivano Fossati.

The guest of honor was Barbara Frale, an official of the Vatican Apostolic Archives and scholar of the Templars , who spoke about her discovery of the Chinon parchment and her work as a novelist.

The evening concluded with a reading of an excerpt from Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery .

On Saturday, back in the square, the second lecture-performance "The Temple Treasure and Other Legends" took place. It answered questions and mysteries: Did the Templars find the Ark of the Covenant? Where is its treasure hidden? Starring in novels like Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum , comics, films, and video games, the Templars are a myth that lives on.

The evening opened with "La parola perduta" (The Lost Word), performed by Elisabetta Gagliardi, and with Gian Piero Alloisio, who proposed "Dovevo fare del cinema", a song recorded by Francesco Guccini on his album "Parnassius Guccinii", to introduce the intervention of the master of arms Walter Siccardi, protagonist of films such as Pupi Avati's I cavalieri che facendo l'impresa (The Knights of the Impresa ), Antoine Fuqua's King Arthur and Ridley Scott's Robin Hood .

Don Stefano Tessaglia, professor at the University of Eastern Piedmont, explored the topic of contemporary Neo-Templar associations, with particular attention to Catholic ones, such as the current Templars.

"Il talento", a song recited with music by Alloisio, introduced the video intervention by Philippe Josserand, from the University of Nantes, dedicated to the false Templars of Rennes-le-Chƒteau and the hypothesis of an escape to Scotland.

Another Mozart aria, performed by Chiara Sorce with Rodrigo Leal, preceded the speech by Kristjan Toomaspoeg, from the University of Salento, an expert on the Teutonic Order and the Order of Malta.

The evening concluded with a reading of an excerpt from Foucault's The Pendulum and the participation of historians, reenactors, and artists on the notes from Alloisio's "The Stars."

The Sala del Museo di Palazzo Cuttica hosted the round table "Templari, Libri e Fumetti" with Arnaud Baudin, Simonetta Cerrini, Stefano Priarone, Mirko Santanicchia and Kristjan Toomaspoeg, and a new episode of the podcast "Eco Sentieri" (Loquis), created by Brunello Vescovi for the Festival and dedicated to Umberto Eco, the church of Santa Maria di Castello and the Templars.

Also presented were the second edition of The Templars: War and Sanctity and Lorenzo Mercuri's book , The Enclos du Temple: Topography and Forms of an Absence in Medieval Paris .

The Festival closed in the "Broletto" Conference Hall of the Palatium Vetus with the Tref Day (European Federation of the Templar Heritage Route), dedicated to the discovery of the Italian and European Templar heritage and to three emblematic sites of the period: the chapel of Santa Maria Isana in Livorno Ferraris, the church of San Bevignate in Perugia and the now-disappeared Temple of Paris.

During the festival, visitors could visit the traveling exhibition A Heritage to Share: Templar Europe , which narrates the richness and variety of European Templar heritage.