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A lot of water has passed under the bridge since the first time we heard the story of Rosania Fulgosio, the young woman walled up while still alive in the 1200’s by her husband, Pietrone da Cagnano, in a concealed location in the foundations of Gropparello Castle. Her fate was a punishment for her betrayal with Lancillotto Anguissola, a love of hers since her youth. Her spirit is said to still linger among the walls and her wails are heard on stormy nights. Certainly, time has passed by, but above all a series of disturbing and inexplicable events have passed before our eyes that have led us from our initial state to today’s certainty: that Rosania Fulgosio definitely existed, that she met a horrible death among these walls and that the “accursed chamber” where she met her terrible destiny still exists today, untouched, in a remote quarter in the foundations of the castle. It still houses the bones of the unhappy girl. Yet, there is a more disturbing aspect still: Gropparello Castle does not contain just the bones of Rosania Fulgosio, who perished more than six centuries ago in her cell hollowed out from the rock … something else of her survives, connected to that place, and it often manifests, even to the eye. That immortal essence, conscious of itself and its own condition, seems to search for contact with the living who now occupy what was once her domain and asks insistently for aid to help find peace … Meanwhile, for various reasons and in many ways, that “presence” has become an extremely important part of our experience at Gropparello and is perhaps the true protagonist of our story. So one day I decided to put our story in writing and tell everything that happened …
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The initial project was meant to be a chronicle, a schematic account that would give the various facts in chronological order, almost a memorandum we would never forget. I wanted to leave a testimony. But then I paused to think about something: for us it was not a case of just facts. Instead, we felt emotions, as soon as we learned of that legend - whether we believed it or didn’t believe. We felt them from the first events that occurred, to which we committed ourselves to giving rational explanations where there and could be none, from the slow and gradual unveiling of that presence through clear signs, tokens and messages (which were increasingly clear, manifest and unequivocal), until the revelation of an incredible reality. We became in turn curious, anxious, alarmed and moved; we hoped, feared, suffered and became content. The chronicle tells us the facts, not the emotions associated with them and which involved me personally, my wife, our children, our relatives and many others, directly or otherwise. So a different idea began to take shape: what thing could transmit not only the facts but also the emotions? A novel. So this book was born, which tells precisely the events that occurred, how we experienced them and the atmosphere behind them. The aim is to let the reader participate in our states of mind in those moments. It is we who are in this novel, as the reader could discover if he / she came to visit the castle, even though I have used fictional names to detach myself from a pure and simple chronicle. All the other characters and their roles in the events are also just as real, no matter how fictional they might appear to be. Even the occurrences conform rigorously to the truth: whoever refuses to accept transcendental realities may try to explain them howsoever he / she may wish and we can even discuss the matter. However, it cannot be denied that what I have told really happened and often the witnesses are not us directly or not just us.
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Presentation
The magical and enchanted world of Gropparello Castle and its legends is brought to life by the fairy-tale like illustrations of Chiara Gibelli.
Chiara and Francesca, the current young mistresses of Gropparello Castle, hand down the ancient legend and explore directly life in the medieval castle. The investigation is enriched by an educational game that helps boys and girls to learn better the customs and habits of an epoch that saw major changes and which still fascinates young and old alike.
The illustrated legend of Rosania Fulgosio, a mistress of the castle who was buried alive in the walls by her husband in the 1200’s, serves as the starting point for a close look at life in the medieval castle.
A game has been created to complement the book.
Presentation of the game
The method behind the educational activities that typify Gropparello Castle is also found in this book. The educational project has prepared, to complement the study of the Medieval Period, a game which boys and girls may play alone or in a group to recreate the stories of the Court at Gropparello Castle. What they have learned in their reading is expressed in the visual memory.
Boys and girls use their creativity and the knowledge they gained from reading the book to construct medieval stories by positioning the figures of the characters within the castle in a way that is relevant to and logical with the story created and appropriate for the roles that each character had in the medieval story. Whoever manages to dispose of all the figures by positioning them all in an appropriate way wins.
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