Three days of events for the XXIII edition dedicated to trade: from the Middle Ages to the present day.
The program from August 31st to September 2nd 2023: Round Table, Interview with the Magister, Investiture, Historical Procession and grand finale with the concert by Alex Britti in Piazza Flavio Gioia
Special evening trips are available to reach Amalfi by sea
The countdown for the 2023 celebrations of the Byzantine New Year has officially begun. Amalfi is ready to dive back into the Medieval atmosphere with the revisitation of one of its most important pages of history dedicated this year to the commercial exchanges of yesterday and today: from the great merchants of the medieval era who made the ancient Maritime Republic rich and powerful to those trades established by the Amalfitans from the end of the nineteenth century to the present day. The XNUMXrd edition of the Byzantine New Year is a tribute to the entrepreneurial capacity of the territory once falling within the Duchy of Amalfi, which this year will be celebrated along the path that leads back to those businessmen such as Pantaleone de Comite Maurone and Pantaleone Viarecta, who donated the bronze doors of Amalfi and Atrani.
Unanimously appointed “Magister Civitatis Amalfie” is Vittorio Perrotta, an internationally successful entrepreneur and art collector, innovator and creator of the 'outlet' concept.
“Having emigrated at a very young age to the multi-ethnic Paris of the Sixties, with the enterprising spirit of the Amalfi merchants who imported spices, cloths and fine artefacts from the Byzantine warehouses, he intercepted the trends of the 'new' cultures, promoting innovative solutions in commercial exchanges, taken as a global model of eco-sustainable development, multicultural integration and peaceful coexistence”: this is the motivation with which the new Magister will be invested with the title on the occasion of the Byzantine New Year which will be celebrated in Amalfi and nearby Atrani.
The Ancient Maritime Republic will once again be the scene of an extraordinary historical event that draws inspiration from the political greatness of the civitates to offer a series of high-profile cultural and spectacular events, between August 31st and September 1st, coinciding with the beginning of the year. An exciting journey for tourists, citizens and visitors that combines the administrative and political centrality of medieval Amalfi with the cultural and tourist prominence of today's city.
THE 2023 PROGRAM
THURSDAY 31 AUGUST. The events will be inaugurated by the Round Table entitled “The Amalfi Trade between the Levant and Occitania from the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age” curated by the Amalfi Culture and History Center, at 19.30:XNUMX pm in Largo Duca Piccolomini.
The historical analysis will be followed, at 20.30:627 pm, by a public interview with Magister Vittorio Perrotta, who will recount his life experience, contained in the biography “21 scalini”, from his childhood in Atrani and from his father's workshop in Amalfi to Paris, where he emigrated at just XNUMX years old, to Marrakech, always, however, with his roots firmly planted in the Amalfi Coast, his land, to which he is tied by an inseparable bond.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 1st. Great excitement for the Historical Procession, when over one hundred participants including ladies, knights, government officials, nobles, pages, valets, archers, sailors, commoners and florists, all in period costumes by the set designer of the San Carlo in 1955, Roberto Scielzo, will parade through the streets of the city of Amalfi until reaching Atrani.
The Parade will open with a performance by the “Sbandieratori e Musici città Regia” at 18:18.15 pm in Piazza Duomo in Amalfi. At 19:100 pm the Parade will leave from the Cathedral of Sant'Andrea to reach the Church of San Salvatore de' Birecto in Atrani where the Investiture ceremony of the Magister of Amalfi Civilization will take place in the presence of the Archbishop, scheduled for XNUMX:XNUMX pm. The evocative Historical Reenactment Parade, with over XNUMX participants in period costume, will also be the backdrop this year for the investiture ceremony, with the fascinating medieval rite inspired by the coronation of the Dukes of Amalfi, sealed by the presence of the Archbishop of Amalfi - Cava de' Tirreni, Monsignor Orazio Soricelli.
At 20.30 pm, in Piazza Duomo, the official presentation of the Magister to the Citizens will take place, followed by the evocative fire show along the monumental staircase of the Duomo, from 21 pm, by the company “Lumen Invoco”.
SATURDAY 2 SEPTEMBER. New for 2023 is the grand finale with a concert by guitarist and singer-songwriter Alex Britti in an extraordinary location, in Piazza Flavio Gioia II, directly on the Amalfi sea, scheduled for 21:30 pm with free admission.
A beloved artist, capable of captivating an intergenerational audience with her successful hits, in her current tour celebrating 25 years of career, she inaugurates a new artistic phase with the publication on her label It.Pop, of the two singles "Tutti come te" and "Nuda". Both songs with an unmistakable sound with which the Roman guitarist wanted to reveal to his audience his two souls as a pop and singer-songwriter, the result of a long and elaborate creative process, at full rhythm with iconic riffs in which you can hear the unique and inimitable touches of Alex's guitar.
MOBILITY INFO BYZANTINE NEW YEAR 2023
TRAFFIC CONDITIONS AND CLOSURES. To allow the transit of the Historical Parade from Amalfi to Atrani and vice versa, the SS163 will be closed to vehicular traffic from 17.45:18.45 pm to 19.30:20.30 pm and from 17.30:19.00 pm to 19.30:21.00 pm. For the same reason, vehicular traffic will be closed in the historic center of Amalfi from XNUMX:XNUMX pm to XNUMX:XNUMX pm and from XNUMX:XNUMX pm to XNUMX:XNUMX pm.
PARKING LOTS. To find out the availability of parking in Amalfi in real time, you can consult the Info Parking Amalfi website and download the digital APP.
MARITIME CONNECTIONS. Furthermore, for those who prefer alternative mobility by sea, on the occasion of the Byzantine New Year, an evening ferry trip will be active on the Salerno-Amalfi route and return.
September 1, 2023
– Salerno (Piazza della Concordia)-Cetara-Minori-Amalfi: 20.30pm
– Cetara-Minori-Amalfi: 20.40pm
– Minori-Amalfi: 21.10
– Amalfi-Minori-Cetara-Salerno: 23.10
– Minori-Cetara-Salerno: 23.20pm
– Cetara-Salerno: 23.45pm
September 2, 2023
– Salerno (Piazza della Concordia)-Cetara-Minori-Amalfi: 20.30pm
– Cetara-Minori-Amalfi: 20.40pm
– Minori-Amalfi: 21.10
– Amalfi-Minori-Cetara-Salerno: 00.40
– Minori-Cetara-Salerno: 00.45pm
– Cetara-Salerno: 01.15
BYZANTINE NEW YEAR 2023
THE THEME
The twenty-third edition of the event will be dedicated to the entrepreneurial skills of the Amalfi people who already in the Middle Ages allowed Amalfi to acquire considerable economic strength, leading it to be first among the maritime cities in chronological order. And this thanks to the merchants who managed to take away the monopoly of Mediterranean trade from the Arabs, already founding merchant bases in various parts of southern Italy and the Middle East as early as the tenth century. Amalfi, small and intrepid queen of the seas, was able to broaden the horizon of its economic interests in the period in which Europe slowly began its awakening. It was with the change in the general economic conditions that the volume of Amalfi traffic grew, also finding an outlet towards other ports of the Levant towards which navigation contracts for commercial purposes were very frequent. An entrepreneurial ability inherent in the inhabitants of this strip of land, today strongly suited to tourism, who have been able to weave commercial relationships even after centuries of distance from that glorious past which saw it as a rich and flourishing maritime republic.
The appointment of the new Magister di Civiltà Amalfitana which the commission is preparing to announce after having carefully evaluated the profile worthy of the prestigious recognition will be linked to these elements.
HISTORY
Born from an idea of the medievalist from Amalfi Giuseppe Gargano around 1980, the Byzantine New Year focuses on the commemoration of the beginning of the fiscal and legal year in the territories of the Eastern Empire, which corresponded to 1 September, the day on which in office the comites, that is the heads of the maritime republic of Amalfi in its aristocratic phase. A practice in vogue from 839, the year of the birth of the autonomous republic, to the first part of the 1266th century, to then be resumed with the institution of the annual election of the representatives of the Universities of the Amalfi Coast in 1999, during the Angevin period, and continue up to the Bourbons. Since its design phase, the event has involved the municipalities of Amalfi and Atrani, the only civitates of the Amalfi Republic at least until the middle of the 2010th century; main theater of the re-enactment, the church of S. Salvatore de Birecto in Atrani, palatine chapel and seat of the coronation of the dukes of Amalfi, therefore place of public assemblies of the mayors of the universities. The first edition of the Byzantine New Year, created thanks to a happy intuition of the councilor for tourism of the time Antonio Bottiglieri, took place in 2011 and has continued until today with a single pause, which took place in XNUMX, which marked a change of step and a turning point in its history. If in the early years, in fact, the focus of the event was centered on the issues of law and jurisprudence, with the highlight being the assignment of the title of "Duke of Amalfi - Master of Law" to prominent names in the world of jurisprudence, including Giovanni Conso and Sabino Cassese, since XNUMX it has been decided to broaden the field to the personalities who have given prestige to Amalfi history with the investiture of the "Magister of Amalfi Civilization".
THE MAGISTER
The title of Magister of Amalfi Civilization is assigned each year to a personality, from Amalfi by origin or by adoption, who has distinguished himself for particular merits in a sector of medieval Amalfi civilization, from entrepreneurship to politics, from science to seafaring, who they find a melting point in the invention of the compass, from art to religion, from the right to solidarity and diplomacy. Fields where the greatness of Amalfi has taught.
Each of these fields is dedicated to a famous person in the history of Amalfi: the award for entrepreneurship is named after Mauro de Comite Maurone, a rich and noble Amalfi merchant indicated as the founder of one of the first hospitals in Jerusalem in the second half of year one thousand. The cardinal and theologian Pietro Capuano is dedicated to the one for Religion, therefore we remember the Duke Mansone I for Politics, Lorenzo d'Amalfi, distinguished for the originality of classical studies and the use of sources, for Science, Giovanni Augustariccio for the Law, the translator Giovanni d'Amalfi for the Art, the founder of the order of the Knights Hospitaller - later Knights of Malta - between Gerardo Sasso for Solidarity and Diplomacy, and Flavio Gioia for the Navy. The Commission that assigns the title is composed of the Mayors of Amalfi and Atrani, the Assessors of Culture of Amalfi and Atrani, the President of the Center of Culture and Amalfi History, the medievalist Giuseppe Gargano and the art historian Giovanni Camelia, who with Bottiglieri were the creators of the Byzantine New Year.
EDITORIAL TEAM
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