As part of the Erasmus+ project “The Digital Dimension of the Network of UNESCO Cultural Spaces” (DigitICH), the Associazione Tenores Sardegna, in collaboration with the Municipality of Torpè, the Tepilora Park, and the UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserve of Tepilora, Rio Posada and Montalbo, organized a day dedicated to meeting the delegations from the partner countries involved in the DigitICH project: Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia, Georgia, and Portugal.
During the morning, the delegation had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Nuragic Civilization and to appreciate the reconstruction of the clothing worn by Sardinian populations in the Bronze Age. These reconstructions were made possible thanks to studies of the so-called Nuragic bronzetti, small bronze statuettes—found in the hundreds across the island—depicting priests, warriors, tribal leaders, offerers, women, and figures in various situations and contexts.
This was followed by a conference held in English (also supported by simultaneous translation by Elena Pilosu) presenting the cultural and environmental heritage of the area. After the institutional greetings delivered by the Mayor of Torpè, Mr. Martino Giovanni Sanna—who is also Acting President of the Tepilora Park—and by Hon. Sebastian Cocco of the Regional Council of Sardinia, the conference proceedings took place (see attached program).
At the end of the discussion, the delegation was able to admire the traditional male and female attire of Torpè, and some members of the delegation also had the opportunity to wear them. The meeting concluded with a presentation of intangible cultural heritage, including the ballo sardo in its local version and the canto a cussertu, the Torpè variant of canto a tenore.
Immediately after lunch, offered by the Municipal Administration, the delegation was able to take part in the Feast of Saint Anthony of Torpè, renowned throughout Sardinia for its remarkable and deeply felt popular participation, and especially for the extraordinary “carros de sa frasca”: trucks, tractors, and ox-drawn carts transporting enormous loads of rockrose, rosemary, helichrysum, and other native shrubs from the area, which are later set alight in the large “Fogulone de Sant’Antoni” late in the evening.
This is a popular festival that constitutes, in itself, an intangible heritage of inestimable value for the community of Torpè and for Sardinia as a whole.
