Easter arches in San Biagio Platani Sicily #4

by RicardMN Photography

Title

Easter arches in San Biagio Platani Sicily #4

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RicardMN Photography

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Photograph

Description

San Biagio Platani is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Agrigento in the Italian region Sicily, located about 70 kilometres (43 mi) south of Palermo and about 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Agrigento.

San Biagio Platani It is the city of Easter Arches, a tradition that originated in the second half of the ‘600. It is grandiose artistic buildings, the arches, domes, and bell towers that are arranged along the Corso Umberto. The religious significance of Easter Arches it is very clear: Christ’s triumph over death. But the arches are rooted in the misery suffered by the population in the ‘700, whose preparation precisely served to obscure poverty.

The Easter arches officially ready by Easter morning and are also shown in the following weeks. The preparation, beginning a few months before the Passover, it requires a large amount of material, all strictly granted by nature. Those most largely used are the reeds, willow, asparagus, bay leaf, rosemary, cereals, the dates and bread, each of which is packed with a high symbolic meaning. The most important part is constituted by the central arches, historical origin of the event, under which on Sunday morning the encounter between the risen Jesus and Our Lady.

From year to year, it is changed the aesthetics of the course, while the architectural structure remains unchanged, it consists of entry, the boulevard and the arc. The entry represents the facade of a church, the avenue the aisle and arch, opposite the entrance, the apse of the church itself. For over three centuries the architectural structure is always the same and takes the form of a church; in fact, being composed of the entrance, the avenue and the arch, one has the sensation of walking through the interior of a church where it is possible to admire its beauty. What changes every year is the aesthetics, then decorations, colors and decorations. It is under the central arches that Easter Sunday takes place the meeting between the Risen Jesus and Mary.

But the tradition of the Easter Arches, which has been handed down to the present day, has its roots back in 1700 when the small town of Agrigento was nothing but one of the many fiefdoms in Sicily. In those times, the Arches Bread were exposed, on the occasion of the Easter holidays, to welcome the great feudal lords, who came to collect taxes and gabelles. With the display of these artistic masterpieces “rich, precious but also simple and genuine” the peasants, as well as wanting to represent, from the religious point of view, the victory of Christ over death, wanted to demonstrate the will to get out of the condition of poverty and misery in which they lived and wish, at the same time, a more prosperous future. (Description from Wikipedia and lovingsicily.it).

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August 28th, 2019

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