A 'bridge' Between East And West: Along The Byzantine Monks Path
Basilicata is the land of the soul, that inspires silence, meditation and spirituality. Since AD 1000, many religious communities have settled here, leaving their traces. This was during the Byzantine era, when many monks lived in the southern part of Basilicata, seeking shelter from border wars and seeking solitude. Monasteries and abbeys were built in the most fertile areas, around which villages grew up.
This is the story of Carbone, a small medieval village in the heart of the Pollino park, which for 800 years has been a place of encounters and transitions, almost like a bridge between East and West. A place that history and tradition have turned into an interactive museum of art and spirituality. This project traces a geographical and cultural link between Matera 2019 and Carbone, which also becomes a Capital for a Day offering guided tours, walks through the ancient streets, calligraphy workshops, the Angelus in the Annunziata Church, and stories about the Byzantine monks’ life told by Robinson, a British philologist who discovered the village in 1930. In the evening a sensory itinerary amongst the ruins of the monastery park, with music, light and theatre will take place, so that the small and delightful town of Carbone becomes the ‘capital of the heart’, as it has done for those who already visited it.
Realized in co-production by
Municipality of Carbone for Capital for one day
