Montefeltro Art Views – Nine panoramic balconies to admire the landscapes in the paintings by Piero della Francesca and Leonardo Da Vinci
Admiring the same landscapes that Piero della Francesca's eyes gazed upon, on the same hills where Leonardo da Vinci's gaze lingered. A point of view that is now possible thanks to the Montefeltro Art Views project, which has envisaged the creation of 9 panoramic balconies, scheduled to be inaugurated in summer 2022. Stations from which to observe the Renaissance views, equipped with a series of new multilingual, multimedia and interactive digital communication services, consisting of a Web App and an eBook offering a new way of enjoying the cultural heritage and the Renaissance views of the paintings by Piero Della Francesca and Leonardo Da Vinci.
This was discussed in Rimini on last May 31st at the event "Meeting People Through Recoloured Landscapes of Art - Where Art, Landscape and Sustainable Tourism Meet", organised by the Emilia-Romagna Region in cooperation with the University of Bologna, attended by the Regional Councillor for Culture and Landscape.
Two round tables celebrated two years of cooperation between the 8 Italian and Croatian partners in the framework of the European project RECOLOR, dedicated to the unprecedented and discoveries and enhancement of artistic and landscape heritage in the Adriatic Sea, led by Emilia-Romagna Region and which also involves the Polytechnic University of Šibenik, the Municipality of Campobasso, the Municipality of Cividale del Friuli, GAL Montefeltro Sviluppo, the University of Bologna, the Municipality of Labin and the City of Zadar.
Emilia-Romagna Region emphasised that the project combines the protection of the natural landscape with the cultural and tourist promotion of the areas involved, creating an open-air museum that leads visitors on routes through the works of art/paintings. Financed by the European Territorial Cooperation Programme Italy-Croatia 2014-2020 RECOLOR, the aim of the project is to increase the tourist attractiveness of urban and rural landscapes, both Italian and Croatian, which are characterised by a significant cultural heritage but located outside the traditional tourist circuits. In particular, the project has defined new models for the valorisation of figurative artistic sources and the promotion of related cultural itineraries, also trying to favour a diversification of the natural and cultural heritage, using innovative methodologies focused on analysing and de-seasonalising the tourist offer in the area.
The reference experience is precisely the one developed in the Montefeltro region where important correspondences with artistic landscapes depicted in important paintings by the Great Masters of the Renaissance such as Piero della Francesca and Leonardo da Vinci, including La Gioconda. The research, carried out by researchers Rosetta Borchia and Olivia Nesci, was aimed at identifying existing artistic landscapes, analysing the paintings depicting these landscapes and developing integrated cultural itineraries. The methodology used for the identification and reconstruction of landscapes was applied for the first time in the analysis of 'art places' depicted in paintings and in the current landscape, and represents an innovative field of cultural geomorphological research and landscape archaeology.
The Montefeltro Art Views now offer a concrete opportunity to the 7 municipalities in Emilia-Romagna and the Marche Regions (Acqualagna, Montecopiolo, Pennabilli, Poggio Torriana, San Leo, Sant'Agata Feltria and Urbania), which will be able to count on a new tourist route and will be able to develop countless new cultural and naturalistic tourism proposals. The realisation of a project that successfully crosses regional borders, that networks local administrations and institutions looking at Europe and sustainable tourism, makes the Montefeltro Art Views the ideal ambassador for the future projects that Emilia-Romagna intends to pursue with its regional policies.
