A double inauguration ceremony for Bergamo and Brescia as Italian Capital of Culture 2023 took place in both cities, at the Teatro Grande in Brescia and at the Teatro Donizetti in Bergamo, on Friday 20 January simultaneously and live on Rai at 17 pm.

After the island of Procida and its success in 2022, it's the turn of the two Lombard cities, among the first to be hit by the pandemic. The choice of Bergamo and Brescia is more than symbolic: it showcases the commitment, tenacity, and strength these two cities demonstrated in the first place in fighting Covid. To convey this, the promoters have chosen a single, self-explanatory slogan: " Culture as a cure ." This challenge must serve the entire community to restore hope, what the media have called a "therapeutic journey," allowing this area to rise from the rubble.

On March 18th, at 8 p.m., the bell towers across the 7.500 square kilometers between the Bergamo and Brescia provinces will ring 10.140 times. This isn't a random number, but the exact number of deaths caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in that area, the first to be hit hard by the coronavirus emergency.

The nomination of Bergamo and Brescia as Italian Capital of Culture 2023, which took place in July 2020, was born from the Italian government's decision to respond positively to a proposal put forward by the two cities. This recognition of their history, artistic and cultural heritage, and ability to regenerate and actively project themselves into a present of construction, work, solidarity, and innovation. For the first time since the Italian Capital of Culture title was established, two cities, united in the desire to " Grow Together ," have created a single Capital, as will be the case at the European level in 2025 between Gorizia and Nova Gorica , a history of cities divided but united in cooperation.

Guest of honor at the Teatro Grande in Brescia will be the President of the Republic , Sergio Mattarella , and at the same time in Bergamo, at the Teatro Donizetti, the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano.

"Brescia and Bergamo are exemplary with their civic virtues, both past and present. These cities were hit hard by the first wave of the pandemic, when an aggressive and unknown virus claimed thousands of lives in our country," President Mattarella began . "And they were able to respond, creating, and nurturing with their values, that model of solidarity that allowed us to face the crisis."

Present at the opening ceremony in the two theaters at the invitation of the two mayors were Laura Busecchian , President of the Provincial ANVGD Delegation in Brescia, and Maria Elena Depetroni , President of the Bergamo Committee, in Bergamo. This testimony to the significant presence of tens of thousands of exiles from Istria, Fiume, and Dalmatia in two territories that offered welcome, solidarity, and employment opportunities, despite the immediate post-war reconstruction and the desolation of some refugee camps (one example being the Goito Barracks in Brescia on Via Callegari). This is an important recognition of the history of the exodus, and the tragedy that accompanied it, in the official pages of Italian History and in the various social contexts of the country.

There are data and statistics on refugees hosted in the centers maintained by the Office for Border Areas, which show, for example, that in 1947, 420 people were housed in the Refugee Camp in Bergamo (Alessandra Fusco, in her novel Tornerà l'Imperatore , recounts the story of a family from Pola who settles in Bergamo). These same sources reconstruct the trajectories of the refugees who arrived in Bergamo: The first group of 35 people arrived on February 2, 1947, after disembarking from the motor vessel Toscana in Venice; on February 8, another 38 arrived, and on February 11, another 24, with 180 arriving on February 13. The Presidency of the Council of Ministers informs us that a refreshment point operated by the Pontifical Assistance Commission (a Catholic organization) was open at the Bergamo station, providing hot meals and first aid. Over 5000 exiles landed in Brescia at various times, to which must be added those present at the Refugee Collection Centers in Chiari, 1500, and those in Fasano del Garda, Bogliaco, and Gargnano, approximately 2000, for a total of approximately 8500 men, women, and children. Brescia received a greater reception than other Italian cities, divided into five collection camps, the largest of which was located at the current site of the Documentation Center on Via Callegari. In Brescia, in 1957, the Ministry of Public Works built 200 housing units in the San Bartolomeo neighborhood, 178 of which were later purchased by the residents. These were low-cost public housing units.

The National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, already involved two years ago in the construction of the two ambitious projects of Bergamo and Brescia, immediately responded with enthusiasm and willingness to collaborate to the appeal of the two provinces so that, along the various itineraries identified, there would be space for everyone's contribution.

BERGAMO AND BRESCIA, CITIES WELCOMING THE EXODUS
Places, stories, MEMORY and memories

The National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia (Bergamo Committee and Brescia Delegation), in collaboration and with the support of the Multimedia Documentation Center of Julian, Istrian, Rijeka and Dalmatian Culture (CDM), therefore proposes to the two provinces of Bergamo and Brescia, with particular attention to schools, a project to disseminate on pages of history and memories of people from our community of exiles welcomed in Bergamo and Brescia in places (refugee camps, former hospitals, etc.) of which today few traces remain: men and women who, having inserted themselves into the new social context, have contributed in first person to the development of the Bergamo and Brescia societies.

“Pages of history in some respects still very close to us and in others already distant; precisely for this reason it is necessary to dedicate space and time not only to commemorate, but also to reread and reflect with greater objectivity, taking up the much broader and ever-present theme of borders and separations” [Gianni Oliva].

The project aims first of all to reach those areas of the two Provinces that, either due to their considerable distance from cultural-educational centers or due to less assiduous social promotion offers, even more so following the pandemic emergency period, over the years have not been able to be involved or participate in the ACTIONS of active citizenship (for example through the Civil Calendar), in the CULTURAL EVENTS (promotions of publications or recent historical studies) and above all in the training ACTIVITIES (for teachers and students) promoted by the city, provincial, regional and national Civil and Scholastic Institutions on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance and the various study days/initiatives aimed at enhancing the cultural, historical, literary and artistic heritage of the Italians of Istria, Fiume and the Dalmatian coasts, in particular highlighting their contribution, in past and present years, to the social and cultural development of the territory of the north-eastern Adriatic coast and also to preserving the traditions of the Istrian-Dalmatian communities residing in the national territory and abroad (Law 92/2004 establishing the Day of Remembrance). An equally important aim consists in the effort, through the support of studies, research, archive material, to reconstruct (as well as to encourage the stimulus to reconstruct) the insertion into the social fabric of the two provinces of a part of history that is intertwined with that of the first Republic of the Lombardy territory: the refugees lived in a situation of total emergency, in the most absolute temporariness and promiscuity, surrounded by a climate of aversion or indifference. The exodus and the desperation were covered by a veil of silence that for sixty years kept the public in the dark about that tragedy, while the exiles began the arduous journey to preserve their historical and cultural identity. A story of misery and abandonment, of physical violence and political violence, of melancholy and bitterness, but also a story of moral dignity: the Istrian and Dalmatian communities have been able to anchor themselves to their culture of origin, guarded as a jealous defense of their identity, thus avoiding the drift. Reconstructing these thousands of stories means valorizing the dignity, the vital force and the contribution of human resources that in those years Italy, emerging from the two World Wars, received vigorously in the territories in question in a widespread and capillary manner: in the inhabited centers, in the plains, in the valleys. On the shores of the lakes. It means rebuilding that same strength of recovery of the two territories of Bergamo and Brescia demonstrated in 2020 and '21 on the occasion of the epidemiological crisis.

THE TWO PATHS COVERED

• Man Environment (settlement/landscape; what did changing environment mean for the refugees and being welcomed in a new environment, how the places were transformed over time, for example the neighborhoods of Bergamo such as Clementina, Viale Venezia, Monte Grigna or of Brescia such as the Caserma di Via Callegari or San Bartolomeo)
• Hidden Treasures (places, “hidden” stories, rediscovery, memories, life experiences)

THE JULIAN VILLAGES

The Bergamo-Brescia area was “changed” in the post-war period by the presence first of the so-called Refugee Collection Centers (Clementina or Caserma-Callegari), then by the housing that arose in the new public housing districts, agglomerations for refugees called “Julian villages”. If, as can be read in the publications of the time close to the exiles’ circles, the ease of connections with the city center seems to represent one of the characterizing elements of the new building complexes, the reality appears instead diametrically opposed since in almost all Italian locations the common characteristic of the new structures seems to be their absolute isolation from the rest of the city context. A choice dictated by a precise building strategy, tending to locate the new building complexes in suburban areas that were not yet or scarcely populated and built. Real “compact blocks of housing” [L. Ferrari, 1980], which, although far from the city, are equipped with their own services and are built taking into account a specific basic need, that is, to reconstruct, even in the new environment, the characteristics of the country of origin. The project aims to reconstruct its history and if possible its physiognomy (of some of them only old photographs remain) as well as to capture the aspect of its relationship with nature and the urban landscape in the two provinces. Particular emphasis is given to the recovery intervention with the 3D reconstruction of the structures of the refugee camps of Bergamo and Brescia (and province) thanks to the interest of Prof. Giulio Mirabella Roberti, Full Professor of the Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences Unibg, with the development of relief projects and the reconstruction of artefacts, buildings, landscapes of the past (still existing, or now disappeared but known through historical or artistic sources) through three-dimensional models, hypertexts and 3D multimedia solutions.

HIDDEN MEMORIES AND RECALLS

Remembering means making memory alive and reconnecting the threads that have woven history and stories: with a balanced mix of personal memories, family albums, official documents, newspaper articles and illustrations of the time, the intention is to bring to life the “little treasure” of thousands of experiences that, having entered the new social context, have contributed in the first person to the development of the Orobic and Brescian societies. We specifically point out the planning and production of the video “Places, stories, MEMORY and memories” for which some Art High Schools of the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia or Applied Science High Schools will be involved in order to make young people protagonists in making memory ALIVE through remembrance.

Every initiative in 2023 in Bergamo and Brescia will be reported on the websites of the associations collaborating on the project.

A special thanks to the Anvgd Presidents who succeeded one another in Bergamo and Brescia in the post-war years and the First Republic, in the years of reconstruction, in times when there was no Parliamentary Law to protect memory, and to all the Members of the Association and the exiles who were able, in recreating a life, a family, a job "elsewhere", with dignity and courage, to weave thin, tenacious, continuous and long-lasting threads with the society that welcomed them and that now embraces and honours them as brothers, sharing their pain.

Maria Elena Depetroni
President of the Provincial Committee of Bergamo of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia 
National Vice President of ANVGD