Day 11 Frescos in Trento

Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas, is a public holiday in Italy and several times during the day the bell tower of Trento’s Duomo reminded us, with bells that rang for about 10 minutes, that this is a special day in the liturgical calendar. To be honest it was a nice alternative to noisy fireworks. The square outside our hotel was turned into a market and most of the shops in town were open for the morning with substantial sales. A huge crowd gathered in one of the trendy unisex underwear shops, which was advertising 50% off. While dozens of people queued to buy their cheap underwear an elegantly dressed woman in a fur coat waited in the line with her rather large boxer dog. The dog was not at all pleased to be there and caused quite a ruckus.

Trento is famous for many things one of them being that it was the venue for the Council of Trent, which was the Roman Catholic Church’s response to the Reformation. Most people would have heard of Vatican II, which was held in the 1960s, but most would not realize that the council that was held previous to Vatican II, was the Council of Trent in the 16^th century. So for nearly 500 years the decisions of the Council of Trent determined the policies of the Roman Catholic Church. And I thought the Presbyterian Church was a bit slow in moving with the times.

Trento is also known for its frescos. Many of the buildings in the old town are adorned on the outside with beautiful frescos, most of which are hundreds of years old. We visited Trento’s famous castle (Castello del Buonconsiglio) specifically to see the most amazingly beautiful frescos which are entitled the Cycle of the Months. They were painted nearly 700 years ago and still look incredibly clear and fresh today. Our audio guide helped us understand these 11 large frescos, which depict life in 14^th century Trento in a series of scenes, one for each month of the year. The peasants are depicted at work, while the nobility find a different way to play each month. The scene of January according to our guide is the oldest fresco in Europe depicting work and play in the snow. Sadly the month of March was painted onto a wooden panel and was destroyed in a fire.

The day ended with dinner at a typical Trentino restaurant, where the owner of the risterante apologised that he could not speak English by saying “Nichte Englisha”. Not very Italian, but a reminder, that Trento is close to the Austrian border.