In the city of stone a cultured and at the same time popular tale

At the gates of the town, a sign alerts the traveller: 'Gubbio, the most beautiful medieval town'. Faced with such an exhibited pride, someone smiles. Someone else, at least in part, tries to disagree. And in a hurry they begin to search their visual memory for at least another half-dozen towns in which the Middle Ages left the indelible marks of a great and surprising beauty. But Gubbio, as historian Franco Cardini likes to remind us, resembles a beautiful lady who has not resorted to cosmetic surgery, unlike many other fascinating centres on the peninsula, perceived in the common consciousness as 'medieval' but which in reality were largely reconstructed, often with great skill, only in the first half of the last century.

In the 14th-century, vertical 'City of Stone', history can be breathed in front of every doorway, in the streets, widenings and palaces. All the way to Piazza Grande, in the heart of the acropolis. In the vast hanging space supported by large arches, the Palazzo dei Consoli and the Palazzo del Comune face each other. The writer Hermann Hesse described in a few words, full of emotion, the amazement felt by every traveller: 'One believes one is dreaming or standing in front of a theatrical scenery and one must continually persuade oneself that instead everything is there, still and fixed in stone'.

It is no coincidence, therefore, that in Gubbio the tale of the Middle Ages is revived every year at the end of the summer with the Medieval Festival, a cultural event that brings thousands of enthusiasts from all regions of Italy to Umbria.

This is not one of the many medieval festivals in historical dress that enliven every corner of the peninsula. Nor is it a conference reserved only for scholars. The Medieval Festival (24-28 September 2025) puts history in the piazza. In the literal sense. More than one hundred medievalists, archaeologists, writers, essayists, scientists, philosophers, architects, art historians, journalists and cultural heritage professionals will take on a real cultural challenge: that of dissemination that combines scientific rigour with expository clarity. A cultured and at the same time popular event. Almost a lens placed on the past to try to focus on and better understand the great questions of contemporary society. But also to discover with fresh eyes an era vilified and often hastily dismissed through stereotypes, catchphrases and clichés good for every use and on every public occasion. Thus, on TV, in newspapers on the web and in private discussions, the commonplace of a 'dark', backward era, dripping with blood, fanaticism and mysteries, rages.

The theme chosen for the 2025 edition 'The Journey. Pilgrims, wayfarers, explorers' tackles another die-hard cliché: that of a static, immobile age, locked within its own cultural horizon. An infinity of historical sources, studies and research prove the opposite: the journey and the road are the real protagonists of the medieval age. A continuous movement of goods and ideas. Just think of the great migrations of peoples, the fairs, the travelling courts, the constant marches of armies and the daring experiences of merchants and explorers. People travelled in every season. By land and by sea. Amid dangers of all kinds. And everyone did it: shepherds and pilgrims, outlaws and jesters, wandering clerics and intellectuals. In the Middle Ages, life itself is a journey. A journey that becomes a metaphor for existence: from birth to death, to eternal life. So much so that St Augustine, a master of restlessness, liked to recall: 'The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page'.