Gran Sasso International Award «Il Gigante Racconta»

An award that gives voice to the mountains and their people

The Gran Sasso International Award «Il Gigante Racconta» is a cultural project for regional promotion conceived and organized by Pro Loco Farindola APS, in the town of Farindola, in the Province of Pescara, in the heart of Abruzzo. Farindola is one of the gateways to the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park, and the award was born from the desire to tell the story of this landscape and the communities connected to it, both within and beyond regional borders.

The «Sleeping Giant»

The name of the award evokes the famous imagery of the Gran Sasso, the massif that, when viewed from afar, resembles the profile of a sleeping giant. It is this «giant» that tells, through the participants' works, stories of memory, identity, and belonging. The competition is open to authors and photographers of all nationalities, with a special focus on Abruzzese people around the world and their descendants, who are invited to contribute works that weave the present with the roots of their homeland.

Poetry and photography in three sections

The award is divided into three sections that combine the written word and the image:

• Words of Memory — a section for unpublished poetry, with works in Italian, English, Spanish, and French, dedicated to memory as a universal heritage;
• Traces of Memory — contemporary photography that interprets the theme through signs, details, landscapes, and villages of the Gran Sasso Park;
• Documentary Memory — historical and archival photography, featuring images of historical and testimonial value regarding Abruzzese life and migration routes.

Special prizes and recognition

Alongside the section awards, the competition includes special mentions and prizes, such as the Renzo Di Marco Award, dedicated to the memory of a local photographer from Farindola, the «Abruzzesi nel Mondo» (Abruzzese Worldwide) recognition for artistic contributions from the diaspora, and the symbolic title of «Ambassador of Memory». For winners residing outside the region, Pro Loco Farindola offers the possibility of remote ceremonies and provides discounted hospitality at local facilities for the awards event.

A living archive of Abruzzese memory

The collected works flow into an Artistic Archive of Memory, a shared heritage that documents the territory, popular traditions, and the history of the Gran Sasso communities. More than just a competition, «Il Gigante Racconta» is a journey of cultural enhancement that unites Farindola, Abruzzo, and Abruzzese people scattered across the globe around a single thread: memory as the living root of identity.