On the website www.presepingranda.it all the information and itineraries to discover the most beautiful and evocative cribs, here some curiosities.
Verduno
The original Nativity Scene set up in Verduno combines the two great passions of the filmmakers Maddalena Ravinale and Carlo Casavecchia: travelling around the world and creating nativity scenes.
The “traveller’s” crib is made in Verduno in the charming Sanctuary of Blessed Valfrè. Every year the visitor crosses new countries, approaching different cultures, from Latin American landscapes to European ones, from the atmosphere of black Africa to the charm of the Sahara desert, from Palestinian and Middle Eastern settings to Indian and extreme suggestions. Orient. The passion for travelling to faraway places allows Carlo and Maddalena to reproduce, working with imagination and with great attention to detail, what they have discovered around the world. Furthermore, every year the setting of the Crib has the purpose of contributing to finance an EMERGENCY project.
The 2019/2020 edition will see the settings of Jordan Palestine, Namibia, Greece and Mongolia.
Isasca
The peculiarity of the Isasca crib is represented by the use of wooden logs of all shapes and sizes collected in the surrounding woods which, arranged in various ways, form a typically mountain landscape. Very characteristic are the small houses and the cave of the Nativity entirely built in stone. Rustic dwellings, reminiscent of the simple and genuine life and environment in which people lived after the war. In the crib of Isasca are also represented glimpses of daily life, while the mechanical movements recall the works, mostly manual and tiring, which marked the life of the past. In the exhibition, every year, the utmost attention to detail is sought, with the aim of always transmitting new emotions and bringing to life a moment of wonder and peace in this world so frenetic.
The Isasca nativity scene has for some years been an important novelty: the story told both in Italian and in Piedmontese dialect. It helps the viewer, in sync with mechanical movements and lights, to follow the story of the birth of Jesus and to understand and taste all the scenes of life represented.
Cuneo – San Paolo
The San Paolo Nativity includes more than 20 different installations covering an area of almost 80 square meters, from the “Capanna del Bambin Gesù” to the reproduction of typical houses of the territory, from the “Case dei Pastori” to the “Lago” on which overlooking the “Casa del Pescatore”, up to the novelties of this year, not revealed! With its 80 square meters and thirty wooden and polystyrene houses, the San Paolo crib is one of the largest in the city.
Everything is the work of the young people of the parish, a work group that brings together young people aged 14 to 30, who try to make their technical knowledge and patience available to expand and maintain installations, combining imagination and the ability to “steal” the secrets of this activity to the most expert.
Racconigi
The church that houses the Crib is the oldest in Racconigi: it dates back to 1506 and is dedicated to the Santissima Annunziata, but everyone knows it as San Domenico as it was the seat of a convent of Dominican Fathers until the 70s of the last century.
The crib was born only three years ago, from the recovery of the figurines found in a trunk in the sacristy of the church and some of them, in plaster, have been restored and modified: for example, what today represents a piper sitting on a trunk was a lying shepherd who was in very bad condition.
The Crib of this year has been expanded compared to the original version and reaches a surface of about 20 square meters: the mountains of the background have been reconstructed and raised, from which flows a stream that flows up to the lake, this too enlarged compared to last year . Other important additions this year are a new village where the reproduction of the church of San Domenico appears, a rural house and the alternation of day and night. In the foreground stands the Nativity, formed by plaster statues about 50 cm high.
Cavallermaggiore
This year the Cavallermaggiore nativity scene celebrates the 42nd anniversary from its foundation, that crown it as one of the longest-lived in the province. It is built on an area of over 300 square meters, starting from a stable structure and it takes about 3 months of work by a dozen volunteers to be realised.
The main characteristics that make it unique are two: the first is the fact of being able to walk inside it, being able to observe from various angles the various settings and scenes of life of the crib; the second are the statues that compose it: the largest (about 50 cm high), which form the market, the cave and the area of the Magi, date back to 1700 and have the particularity of having glass eyes and being sculpted in the wood with great skill and accuracy. A second group of medium-sized statues (about 30 cm high), date back to 1800 and are also carved in wood but in a more coarse way. However, they have articulated arms and legs and have lent themselves more easily to mechanization, which makes them alive in their various Piedmontese trades dating back to the early 1900s. Finally, a third group of statues are of Provençal origin and date back to 1900: they are made in terracotta and cloth and are used in the crib to enhance the perspective and enrich the environment.
In numbers:
5 km of electric cable, the 100 light bulbs contained in the houses, the 100 square meters of green moss, the 5 cubic meters of water that give life to the lake, the various rivers and the 15 fountains scattered all over the crib, the 200 kg of plaster used to make the set together with more than 100 sheets of crumpled paper 120×120 cm and the numerous spray cans to colour them, the 300 kg of gravel to form the streets and squares.
And yet the 200 square meters of blue fabric that make up the sky decorated by 2000 and more paper stars, the many animals including geese, chickens, pigeons, sparrows, peacocks, sheep, cows, pigs that enrich the landscape, the 135 steps that it takes to travel all the way around it …
It has numerous water games and the lights that alternate in sunrise-day-sunset-night, with the appearance of the full moon and the comet.
Also they are very cared for the details inside the houses and the whole of the crib and over 80 mechanical movements.