Custodi di Memoria

A community workshop in the heart of Irpinia

Custodi di Memoria is a cultural event held in Fontanarosa, a small town in the Province of Avellino, Campania, specifically in Piazza Cristo Re, in the heart of the village. It is neither a food festival nor a concert: it is a workshop open to the public, designed to give a voice to the village's historic artisans and to reflect together on the legacy that a craft passed down through generations leaves to an entire community.

The underlying idea is simple yet ambitious: to weave an unbreakable thread between the past, present, and future, showing how centuries-old artisanal techniques are not just manual tasks, but a true artistic and cultural heritage around which concepts of identity and belonging have been formed and strengthened.

The three "P"s of Fontanarosa: stone, straw, and nativity scenes

Visitors arriving here for the first time quickly discover why this town in central-northern Irpinia, nestled in the Fredane river valley, is known as the village of the three "P"s. These are the three crafts that have shaped its identity and remain at the heart of every edition of Custodi di Memoria.

• Stone — extracted from local quarries and worked by stonemasons and sculptors, so much so that Fontanarosa has been the birthplace of masters known well beyond regional borders.
• Straw — woven with a skill that finds its highest expression in the famous Carro di Fontanarosa, a vegetable obelisk tens of meters high that is pulled toward the Sanctuary of Maria Santissima della Misericordia every August 14th.
• Nativity scenes — an ancient art, rooted in the town for centuries, which still engages workshops and families today in the construction of sets and figures.

The Irpinia Resiliente project

Custodi di Memoria did not emerge in isolation: it is one of the actions of Irpinia Resiliente, a project funded by the European Union under NextGenerationEU, with the Agency for Territorial Cohesion and the Department for Cohesion Policies of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The stated goal is to regenerate the social fabric of inland areas starting from the new generations, and craftsmanship is interpreted in this very light: not as a museum exhibit, but as a living resource that can still produce work, relationships, and a sense of belonging.

Organizers

The initiative is made possible thanks to the collaboration between the Consorzio di Cooperative Sociali Percorsi, the Cooperativa Sociale Oasirpina, the Cooperativa Sociale La Girella, the Pro Loco "La Fonte" of Fontanarosa, and the Comitato Festa. It is a network that unites social cooperation and local associations, which also manages other events during the Fontanarosa summer.

When and where

The event is held in July, in the evening, in Piazza Cristo Re: a location that is not coincidental, as it precedes the Fontanarosa Ferragosto and the Tirata del Carro on August 14th by a few weeks—the moment when the art of straw is showcased at its peak before thousands of visitors. Custodi di Memoria thus also serves as a gateway to understanding what will be seen in August.

Why it is worth attending

It is a small, outdoor, free, and deeply local event, and for that very reason, it is precious. Those who participate do not watch a packaged show, but listen to people who talk about their craft in everyday language. For visitors from outside the area, it is one of the most direct ways to come into contact with the "real" Irpinia, that of the towns that resist depopulation by leveraging what they do best.