are natural disasters that we can read the history of the earth and the history of mankind. Catastrophic floods or earthquakes have stopped frightening snapshot that now allow us to reconstruct the history of very remote times. Just in time for the dinosaurs, just in time relatively recent in the history of Pompeii Roman civilization.
Sometimes the connections of thought are bizarre and out of place, but is this in fact occurred That is in me, coming to St. Vincent's in Canal Cuna. The first impression is that there, for some reason, suddenly, suddenly the time has stopped. How to Pompeii just have the patience to clean the lava, ashes, the remains of the monuments, and find the casts of the life of the past. The lava in this case is that of a volcano, but it is one of progress, or what we are accustomed to call by that name. On earth hath been suddenly struck a long-wave sleep and many things remain submerged.
of a sudden in the fifties civilization started racing pace never before seen. Channel Cuna has not kept pace. In the march of development has begun to lag behind the first, to lose contact, and then stopped, letting the ashes of time covered. The nature of that, who knows how many centuries before, had to retreat to make way for man and crops necessary for its survival from year to year is taken as a lava flow unstoppable throughout the country. The forest had to retreat to give way to pastures for raising cattle, has been recovering slowly up the spaces behind the houses. The ivy and shrubs are entered right into those which were the abodes of men and are breaking up, Smove, crumbling. It will make a pile of rubble and then cover it with vegetation, and no one remembered that he lived in Val di Cuna man.
a few years, a few centuries ... But now anyone staying in Val di Cuna, if you could just take off the dust left by the volcano of progress, still unable to see the man, his life. Through the pictures and especially the feelings and moods that raises the place, you are still unable to rebuild the image of what life was like in the mountains of Friuli until a century ago. Already on the trail that descends from Forchia zuviel, the road linking Sunsets in the valley, in the dry stone walls that support the roadbed, the polished stones on which you run the risk of slipping, find the people who for centuries have taken care with patience and skill maintenance of their road, find the constant comings and goings of people who went out to fell in the valley to go to the country. And step on
zuviel, (the same etymon of Zovello in meat), the Zòuf small, small game or step if you prefer, tired after ERT rising from Plan ... the breath had opened and the breathing of the confused valley which had suddenly spread before your eyes. The valley loved the valley because of the safety and serenity of the valley roots that opened the eyes of its residents as an oasis of tranquility every time he returned from Tramonti.
When finally after a succession of curves that seem to never have to end, you reach the bridge over the river That (neck) of the boat, which immediately get onto the Rio Comugna marking and accompanies the whole valley, are the first evidence of ' Footer This man in a shrine dedicated a___. He was certain that tradition which pass in front of you when you started from the valley, as if to ensure the protection of the valley, when it was gone. It was a tradition marked returning to thank you for being returned "safely".
And while I think about those signs of the cross, look at the paper to make the point and you find the strangeness at the bottom of the valley far from any river, a stream of the boat coming down the hill. Following the development of trails on the map to find out that there Preone giving in the valley of the Tagliamento. The reference is to the river and then the other downstream s'attraversava by boat or on a bridge of boats to reach Enemonzo. The reference is to a boat at least five hours' walk away, and you make us realize the first feature of life here: the size of the distances. Two and a half hours to go to Sunset, two and a half hours on the other side to go to St. Francis, or five hours to Preone. Hours of walking a difficult first to climb the high sides of the downstream, such as the edges of a boat cradle od'una (hence the name perhaps?), and then descending the steep slope opposite.
"More than two hours of walking to meet someone outside the valley! Outside the world !...", think to yourself, then you find that Fausto tells you that he covered that distance every day to go to school. This is coming like the most natural thing in the world. Indeed, does it resize it: "The cards scored two and a half hours, but in fact we cover the distance in less than two hours.
you imagine now a guy who does two hours of road walking to school? But so much of the civilization of Cuna del Canal which was then the rural culture of the whole the Friulian mountains a century ago, it is hard to imagine. You have to think about it calmly, removing a bit 'at a time of forgetting the ashes deposited by the economic development of recent decades.
The Church of St. Vincent.
The first meeting is with the Church. Are you seeing the trees, as a small country chapel. Disproportionately dominated by a bell as if to emphasize and highlight the importance of the function of the bell to call all the inhabitants of isolated houses scattered in the valley.
Within living memory there was a sort of wooden scaffolding to support the bell, then the bell tower was built in 1927 as it is now restored
I am told that the last inhabitants have left the valley in 1952 but ten years later the bells were still in place. At the first bell were added if the other two, as in all the towers that are observed. Their voice replacing that of men and with them the valley was still alive in some way.
Then someone thought to make them disappear. Perhaps with good intentions, to prevent others steal. But now that the church was placed, the bells have not returned ... There is only one, but it's new! As I climbed down the trail through m'aveva reached its sound, and I thought that was strange, that it was out of place.
Now I had an explanation: it was the cradle of Bell Canal, was a bell that he had never called people. Was false as the church. It was the result of pitiful attempt to object to the history of mankind. Tried moving, important attempt to appreciate and praise. As long as it does not become a tomb built to honor the dead of which you forget the life and teachings. A sort of excuse to get rid of the consciousness of the sin of forgetfulness.
"No, indeed, we have rebuilt because we want to remember! It must be like a stone that reminds us, that makes you think. The plaque in the history of the valley of Cuna. " But before
be a plaque commemorates the small church has an important story his own.
In 1850, the residency in the valley had to reach the maximum development and demographic (15 families for over one hundred inhabitants) and economic and social development. This is demonstrated by the agreement with Don Leonardo Bidoli chaplain-priest of the Church of S. Antonio Abate di Tramonti di Mezzo, with which the cleric is committed to giving spiritual comfort to the inhabitants of the valley even in winter and celebrate Masses at twelve 'years in the church of St. Vincent. As the economic compensation is given a sort of tax of 50 cents per resident, 2 pounds for each set and two kids.
Fixed issue of the officiant is thought also to beautify the church. The altar was made of wood was replaced with a marble and some years later in 1880 Schiasatti Louis was called to paint an altarpiece depicting St. Vincent Ferrer.
When was the construction of the church? And why is dedicated to St. Vincent Ferrer? You respond by saying that the saint is venerated in defense of earthquakes. It appears that the saint has special properties miraculous against the earthquake. Because if so, the historic land of the Friuli earthquakes should be covered with churches dedicated to St. Vincent. But there's very few. That's why it's so strange to find one right in this remote valley in the mountains where, as just half of a Sunset, you expect to find quite a S. Antonio Abate.
Unless your brother has nothing to do with the history of the place.
Vincent Ferrer was born in Valencia in Spain in 1350 and died in Britain in 1419. Dominican friar, he lived at the papal court in Avignon as a confessor of the Pope. He then abandoned the papal curia to undertake the mission of an itinerant preacher in the Alpine valleys in Spain and France, bringing together a movement of falgellanti and preaching the end of the world as the next.
Speaking of the first inhabitants of the Channel Cuna is said that they were probably "fugitives mountain dwellers, soldiers, the remains of defeats or driven by the crime." But there's no evidence it up when on who first inhabited the valley. So why not think up here it is withdrawn St. Vincent as he turned out to preach "for the Alpine valleys, between September 1404 and August 1406 when his biographers lose track? The saint just think maybe exaggerating, but which has withdrawn some of his followers up here flagellating monks, can not be excluded. What better place for those who wanted to retire to do penance in the belief that it was the imminent end of the world, preaching as St. Vincent?
The fact that a short distance from the church there is a house of the Frari (the Friar) could be an implicit confirmation of the theory.
Or maybe the choice to name the Church of St. Vincent was made by one who knew the story of the saint. It 's the fact that the more holy than anyone else has been able to work miracles, so that his biographer says that "it was a miracle that was not a miracle every time." States that have raised at least 50 people, but above all he was able to master the elements, rain or come by the weather according to the needs of those who required his help.
Living in the mountains in those days could happen often, "not to save what vodàsi sant", not knowing which way to turn to. To live in Val di Cuna we really wanted the help of a saint by the special powers such as St. Vincent!
The big story there are always stories detailed reconstructions made by great historians. The little story of little men, you can only build theories. There are books, there are only, at best, sparse pages. Shreds of a story difficult to reconstruct. This church was rebuilt in
cuz I can testify as a tombstone man's presence in the valley, even when the weather will have swallowed the last houses, the wood will also buried the last stones squared by human labor, along with the signatures and the expressions of amazement and wonder of those who have had the opportunity to come and visit this remote corner of the world last, someone wanted to collect the "snippets of history and memories," the testimonies of the last inhabitants of the valley. "
The story that you can read the reverse side, the reconstruction part of the Church. Rightly, before reading what's written in stone, you should know why and by whom the plaque was desired. In the bare, unadorned church
hits the wall on the left a little mosaic, the work of Professor Charles Fountain of Meduno. Among the evidence is equally detrimental to which issues the professor called on the mosaic and can no longer shrug off the suggestion proved feeling wrapped in a valley cradle "atmosphere that had something magical," as he something magical about the idea of \u200b\u200bthe heirs of the valley of Cuna who persist in wanting to go up the river to discover the ruins of the last their roots.
