The Battenti of Guardia Sanframondi: Faith in Their Hands

In Guardia Sanframondi, in the heart of Sannio, faith is made flesh and manifests through a universal and poignant language: that of the hands. Every seven years, an entire community gathers for the Seven-Year Rites of Penitence, a centuries-old heritage that goes beyond mere tradition. This reportage doesn't focus on dates or events, but on the profound meaning of every single gesture. It's a journey that explores how devotion, penance, and community bonds take shape in a touch, a grasp, an act of offering.

Hands, Blood, and Silence: Faith Made into Gesture

The hands are the true thread of this story, the means by which the Battenti communicate their profound state of mind, remaining veiled and unknown to the crowd. The figure of the Battente is not just that of a penitent, but of a faithful individual who has chosen to offer their body as an instrument of atonement. The Rites are a spiritual journey, a solemn vow made to the Madonna Assunta to ask for a grace. Every strike, every act of penitence, is an expression of prayer, a way to unite one's own pain with that of Christ. It's not an act of self-harm, but an offering made with the soul and the body, in a mystical union that transcends pure physicality. Pain in this context is purification, a means to reach a higher and more profound spiritual dimension.

The Silent Story of Sacrifice

In the photographs, you will see hands that carry the weight of penance, gripping the instruments of sacrifice: the crown of thorns, rosaries, crucifixes. These are hands that are stained with blood, grasping the sponge of pins to inflict the wound, while others offer wine to disinfect, in a ritual that is at once pain and healing..

You will see reflective and penitent hands, moving with precise intent, sometimes alone in the space among the hooded crowd, other times beating their chests in unison in an act of collective sacrifice. You will see the strength in the hands that support the statue of the Virgin, and the humility in those that join together in silent prayer. Each gesture tells a story of deep devotion, an intimate and unbreakable pact between the faithful and their protecting Virgin.

These are calloused hands, the hands of simple people, the hands of sons and fathers, who pass this rite down from generation to generation. It is they, with their gestures, who tell the story of a faith that lives and is renewed, that attracts pilgrims and draws emigrants back home, uniting the entire community in a single, powerful collective prayer.

In an era of frenzy and distraction, these hands remind us that faith is a tangible act, a story that is passed down, a gesture of love that can be transmitted from one hand to another, from generation to generation. This is the true legacy of the Seven-Year Rites of Guardia Sanframondi.

Giampiero D’Antonio

Warning: Some content may offend your sensibilities

A dream in my heart

The first time I was in Naples I was 7 years old, I still remember that encounter.
Together with my grandparents, I came from a visit to the excavations of Pompei, it was early October, the air was calm and pleasant and the sound of seagulls, for months, inhabited my dreams, usually full of mountain silences.

The sea as blue as the sky, the sleeping giant dominating the gulf, the thousands of colours of a surprising city, a feast for the eyes of a child full of curiosity.

We got off at the Garibaldi station and from there crossing Forcella we headed towards the historic center, the buzz of life was something magical for me, I've always been used to a slightly slower pace and less crowded places.

Children in the street playing with Super Santos (a ball), with two stones as football goals, there was a life made of dreams, the same dreams I shared and my own passion for that game called football.

And it is precisely that passion that today unites all the Italian sportsmen and from all over the world in a choral and heartfelt applause for the deeds of the Neapolitan Azzurri.

But, even more than the team, it is the city of Naples with its wonders and its warm and creative people that warms the hearts of passion.
The streets decorated in white and blue, full of Neapolitan pride which, through a game, flows into the essence of life, that of the continuous search for a happiness too often lost behind futile things.

Living the city these days is understanding Happiness, the true concept of life, almost turns upside down and everything, for me, in a dimension of perennial childhood.

I think I have an irrational relationship with Naples that intoxicates my mind and fills my heart and I, disarmed by this, let myself be transported into a timeless dimension, where reason bows respectfully down to an immoderate Passion.

This is my small tribute to the city and its wonderful people, that make Naples the city of joy, where dreams came true.

The magic of the Royal Palace of Caserta (Reggia di Caserta)

Italy holds the record for the most UNESCO heritage sites in the world, and we are here today to present one of the most famous, the Royal Palace of Caserta.

The Royal Palace of Caserta (Reggia di Caserta) is a former royal residence in Caserta, Southern Italy, builded by the House of Bourbon-Swo Sicilies as their main residence as kings of Naples It is the largest palace erected in Europe during the 18th century.

The construction of the palace began in 1752 for Charles VII of Naples (Charles III of Spain), who worked closely with his architect,Luigi Vanvitelli.

The political and social model for Vanvitelli's palace was Versailles.

 Like its French predecessor, the palace was intended to display the power and grandeur of an absolute Bourbon monarchy.

The Reggia has 5 floors, 1,200 rooms, 1742 windows, 34 staircases, 1026 fireplaces, a large library, and a theatre, modelled after the Teatro San Carlo of Naples.

The Reggia is by far the largest royal palace resulting from a single original project in the world in terms of volume with more than 1 million cubic metres (40 million cubic feet).

Of all the royal residences inspired by the Palace of Versailles, the Reggia of Caserta is the one that bears the greatest resemblance to the original model: the unbroken balustraded skyline and the slight break provided by pavilions within the long, somewhat monotonous façade. As at Versailles, a large aqueduct was required to bring water for the prodigious water displays.

The garden, a typical example of the baroque extension of formal vistas, stretches for 120 ha, partly on hilly terrain. It is also inspired by the park of Versailles. The park starts from the back façade of the palace, flanking a long alley with artificial fountains and cascades. 

The fountains and cascades, each filling a vasca (basin), with architecture and hydraulics by Luigi Vanvitelli at intervals along a wide straight canal that runs to the horizon, 

A large number of figures from classical Antiquity were modelled by Gaetano Salomone for the gardens of the Reggia, and executed by large workshops.

In 1997, the palace was designated a Unesco World Heritage Site; its nomination described it as "the swan song” of the spectacular art of the Baroque, from which it adopted all the features needed to create the illusions of multidirectional space.

With this article, we have started a cultural journey that, over time, will lead us to explore the rich and magnificent historical-artistic heritage of this wonderful country, Italy.