The artistic and historic Nativity scene of the Ursuline Sisters, placed since its origins inside the Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle, is composed of figurines with wax heads and hands and bodies made of tow. Oral tradition attributes this precious folk craft work to the eighteenth century, but studies concerning costumes place it in the second half of the nineteenth century. The figurines, created in the silence of the cloister, bring to life the people who animated the markets and streets of Cividale also through the Friulian names with which the nuns had baptized them: Iustin, Agnul, Checo, Min, Zef, Nadal, Tin, Vigi, Toni, Bepo, Meni, Ursule, Sunte, Mariane, Mariute, Menie, Angiule, Filumene, Pine, Sante… Within the walls of the ancient Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle, the tradition of setting up the Ursuline Nativity scene was repeated for decades, a tradition that was resumed, after a period of absence from Cividale del Presepe, precisely in December 2004 and in the original setting, that is below the bell tower of the Church of San Giovanni Battista, near the ancient Ursuline laundry.
The characters of the artistic and historic Nativity scene, Iustin, Agnul, Checo… the Friulian names with which the nuns had baptized the figurines with wax heads and hands and tow bodies, created in the silence of the cloister, bring back to life the people who animated the markets and streets of Cividale in the 1800s.
Information about Orsoline Nativity Scene
Via Monastero Maggiore, SNC
33043 Cividale del Friuli (Udine)
0432700867
turismo@cividale.net
https://www.comune.cividale-del-friuli.ud.it
Source: MIBACT
