Location
Palermo
Start Date
26-6-2025 3:30 PM
End Date
26-6-2025 4:30 PM
Description
Hermitage and tourism may appear to be potentially unrelated, even antithetical. And yet, hermitage practices, both historical and current, have often elicited a strong attraction for the movement of people towards rural areas especially in the context of pilgrimage and religious tourism. While in some cases this activity has led to overtourism, storytelling related to hermitage practices may also be pivotal in the fostering of sustainable tourism practices.
The UNESCO World Heritage site of Monte San Giorgio, at the border between Italy and Switzerland, presents a long-standing history in which the movement of people has been heavily shaped not only by anchoritic activity, but by the storytelling practices associated with it. A partnership between the UNESCO Chair at UniversitÀ della Svizzera italiana and other bodies is currently active in producing a digital storytelling framework for the site, as part of the SECreTour consortium.
The Monte San Giorgio area’s foremost cultic practice revolves around Blessed Manfredo Settala, a thirteenth-century hermit who established himself in an extant cave sanctuary on the peak of Monte San Giorgio. His mummified body is exposed each year during his feast day celebrations, on January 27th, still heavily attended both by the parish community and by religious representatives across the entire macroregion. It forms an ideal centre of practices in the surrounding area, which hosts several instances of active anchoretic activity, as well.
As our pilot study develops a digital storytelling framework accounting for the tangible and intangible heritage of the area, these hermitage practices provide a model for sustainable visitorship in the form of religious tourism. This paper interrogates this storytelling activity within a deconcentrated pilgrimage model, presenting a sample narrative for sustainable religious tourism on and surrounding Monte San Giorgio, with particular insight into the promotion and management of religious sites.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21427/fp4j-mb86
Included in
F1) Hermitage and Digital Storytelling: A Case Study for Sustainable Visitorship
Palermo
Hermitage and tourism may appear to be potentially unrelated, even antithetical. And yet, hermitage practices, both historical and current, have often elicited a strong attraction for the movement of people towards rural areas especially in the context of pilgrimage and religious tourism. While in some cases this activity has led to overtourism, storytelling related to hermitage practices may also be pivotal in the fostering of sustainable tourism practices.
The UNESCO World Heritage site of Monte San Giorgio, at the border between Italy and Switzerland, presents a long-standing history in which the movement of people has been heavily shaped not only by anchoritic activity, but by the storytelling practices associated with it. A partnership between the UNESCO Chair at UniversitÀ della Svizzera italiana and other bodies is currently active in producing a digital storytelling framework for the site, as part of the SECreTour consortium.
The Monte San Giorgio area’s foremost cultic practice revolves around Blessed Manfredo Settala, a thirteenth-century hermit who established himself in an extant cave sanctuary on the peak of Monte San Giorgio. His mummified body is exposed each year during his feast day celebrations, on January 27th, still heavily attended both by the parish community and by religious representatives across the entire macroregion. It forms an ideal centre of practices in the surrounding area, which hosts several instances of active anchoretic activity, as well.
As our pilot study develops a digital storytelling framework accounting for the tangible and intangible heritage of the area, these hermitage practices provide a model for sustainable visitorship in the form of religious tourism. This paper interrogates this storytelling activity within a deconcentrated pilgrimage model, presenting a sample narrative for sustainable religious tourism on and surrounding Monte San Giorgio, with particular insight into the promotion and management of religious sites.