San Quirico - Mother's Day, the Museo del Barbarosso and works of Art

Today is Mothers' Day in Italy, and in Italy there is no-one more important than Mother!  We arrived at the Collegiata Church for the 11 am service only to find that it had been changed to 9.30 am. Sunday lunch with mother is a very strong tradition in Italy so I can only presume that Sunday lunch with mother on Mothers' Day takes priority.

The crowds were flocking in to town so we did some walking around the minor streets of the village.

This is the Andrea della Robbia ceramic statue from the Chapel on the hill at  Vitaleta which is now in the Church of San Francesco, aka the Church of the Madonna di Vitaleta.

The Chigi Palazzo was built in the 17th century and is now used as the city offices and the Museo del Barbarosso. It is free to enter and doesn't have a lot of exhibits but what we saw was interesting. As it was once a stately home it has remnants of frescoes, however I believe the building suffered damage during the war and has not been restored.

This passage way has frescoed walls and ceiling with scenes from nature.

This is a part of the ceiling in the room now used as the council chamber.

Other rooms had various exhibitions. Several had mixed media work by Sèline called Sanctuaries of Nature.

Others housed the winners of an annual sculpture competition.

I was more interested in the ancient crafts, specifically the hand made doors,  hinges and locks.

Festivals are an important part of life in Italy and those held in summer are quite spectacular. The last room we visited told of the history of the Festa del Barbarossa. Since1962 San Quirico d'Orcia has been celebrating Frederick 1 Hohenstaufen's visit in 1155 when he met with Cardinals sent from Rome, and this meeting led to the consent for him to become Holy Roman Emperor.  Known as Barbarosso, he was the most powerful man of his era, and he was crowned in St. Peter's Basilica on 18 June 1155.

Another interesting aside to this festival was the local man who masterminded it, creating the total package in one day. Orfeo Sorbellini was a former teacher with a degree in local history; 'he was bursting with ideas.' He was the initiator, main organiser and everything else including commentator until the mid 1990s.

Later in the day we went for gelato (coffee and saffron with candied orange), we walked some of the outer wall looking at more sculptures, then to the end of town in the north west and finished the day with drinks in the piazza.