If you say Marostica, you immediately think of chess, it is inevitable, an entire black and white square dedicated to the squares of this game (the exact definition of the board is houses), an event that uses living characters to make them move back and forth. But Marostica is also museums, one dedicated to the clothes worn for the chess game in the square and the other to the processing of straw. Marostica is flavors, with its tradition linked to exquisite cherries.
The game of chess with living characters
Do you want to make a cultural and temporal journey? Both the square and the Castle of Marostica are worth a visit and will throw you, in an instant, into a chess duel. The Piazza degli Scacchi hosts in the second weekend of September, a memorable event, which sees the protagonists of the daughter of Castellano di Marostica and two young Rinaldo d'Angarano and Vieri da Vallonara who compete for the hand of the beautiful Lionora.
"The game of chess with real characters“, In fact, it is a suggestive historical re-enactment, a show that involves about 600 people in costume: the game is played at the foot of the low castle of Marostica. On the chessboard, perfectly coordinated, move actors, musicians, archers, knights, complete with horses, donkeys and greyhounds in tow, pageboys holding cloaks and lights capable of headlights to live this experience in an exciting way. The next edition is scheduled for 2022.
The castles of Marostica
Give yourself the opportunity of a cultural visit in this structure, tourist tours and educational workshops are organized upon reservation.
Built in the XNUMXth century on the model of the Lombard and Veronese fortified palaces, the Lower Castle of Marostica was assigned to the district rector for the fiscal control of trade.
From the XNUMXth century it underwent a series of maintenance works.
It was restored in January 1934 and again in 1997, until the last intervention made between 2001 and 2006, since then, in Marostica, you can see the castle in its full version. From Piazza Castello you can take a long healthy walk. From here, along the Sentiero dei Carmini, you arrive at the Upper Castle. The small effort of the climb is rewarded by a beautiful panorama, if you consult the timetables you can also add the view that can be enjoyed from the walkway of the surrounding walls.
The museum of the costumes of the chess game
You can find one of the museums inside the Lower Castle. Here you can admire the costumes worn during the matches. Here are the clothes of Lionora, Oldrada, Vieri da Vallonara and Rinaldo d'Angarano, some members of the court and the pieces of the chessboard. The exhibition is enriched by some props recovered during cultural exchanges abroad including twinning with Tendo (Japan) and Sao Bernardo do Campo (Brazil). You can also admire some works by Vucetich: Testa Virile, Donna Beatriz Berenguer Cesar (1937).
The Crosara di Marostica straw ecomuseum
One of the beauties to visit in Marostica are the hills that surround it. In fact, it is here that the tradition of straw processing develops, and in particular of the braid. And in Crosara there is the Ecomuseum of straw in the peasant tradition, which tells the long and glorious history of straw processing that has characterized this part of the upper Vicenza area for centuries. You will be amazed by the bags and hair born from the skill of women, who see the fastughi, the typical stalks of wheat, grown in this fascinating corner of the world as the protagonist.
Cherries: the flavor of Marostica
Marostica tastes like cherries. The most cheerful and joyful fruit. This greedy gift that opens spring distinguishes it in the world. The history of an entire territory is summed up in a round and red, shiny and juicy fruit. That of Marostica is the first cherry in Italy to have obtained the European IGP Recognition Mark, so precious that it is called red gold. The flavor is a gift from the hills and plains of Marostica, so rich in potassium that it transfuses it into the fruit and makes it sweet, red, similar to a small heart.
featured photograph source: Alessandro Vecchi - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0
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