The historic Simonino Chapel, bequeathed to the FAI in 2018 by Marina Larcher Fogazzaro, has become a classroom. A place to listen to a story from 1475 that has much to teach the citizens of today and tomorrow.

FAI has inaugurated in Trento the Aula del Simonino, formerly known as the Simonino Chapel, located inside Palazzo Bortolazzi Larcher Fogazzaro on Via del Simonino in the historic center of Trento.

Marina Larcher Fogazzaro bequeathed this place to the FAI in 2018, so that it could be restored and enhanced, and the Foundation honors this generous gesture by opening a new property to the public on a regular basis (Wednesday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.), in addition to the 55 already open to visitors among the 72 owned and managed throughout Italy by the Foundation, including the Castello di Avio in the same region.

Restoration work

Thanks to the donor’s bequest*, and with further contributions, FAI carried out the restoration work*: first on the façade of the Palazzo, revealing the 15th-century windowsand restoring color and legibility to the figures and inscriptions painted in the 18th century; then also inside, where much larger contemporary frescoes are preserved, and in the apse space, between two small rooms used as sacristies, where the original altar is located, with architectural and sculptural decorations in polychrome marble in the Baroque style.

The valorisation project

The interior has also been rearranged to realize a new and original cultural enhancement project, which consists of a ‘sound narrative’ dedicated to the story of little Simone da Trento, which will be permanently accessible here. The public, seated on wooden benches like those of a choir, will listen in the dark, in wireless headphones, designed to offer high quality audio, to a narrative of about twenty minutes, informative, didactic, but also highly suggestive and with a particularly immersive effect, conceived and curated by FAI, entrusted to the voice of Trentino actress Daria Deflorian and produced by Chora Media.

The Simonino story

Here, in fact, where his birthplace was – as the inscription on the façade makes clear -, stood in the 18th century, and probably even earlier, the ‘Chapel of Simonino’, i.e. Simone Lomferdorm, a child just over two years old, found dead on 24 March 1475 in the moat of a house along the Adige River owned by a Jew, and unwilling protagonistin an incredible story of anti-Semitism, religious intolerance and injustice, which deserves to be remembered and recounted.

The city authorities of the time, in fact, in the name of a historically hateful anti-Jewish prejudice, fed the false belief of ritual murder, i.e. they accused the Jews of killing the child to obtain its blood for use in the Passover ritual.

Little Simon thus immediately became a Christian martyr, and then officially a blessed, a very popular recipient of a proper cult, with designated places, such as this former chapel, annual processions and a collection of sacred images spread throughout Italy.

The small Jewish community of Trento, however, was unjustly accused, tried and condemned, dramatically persecuted, and finally expelled from Trento, where it did not return for five hundred years.

Only in 1965, following a scientific revision of the trial, which overturned the Jews’ guilty verdict, was the cult of Simonino suppressed by a papal decree, and the removal of the the child’s remains from the Church of Santi Pietro e Paolo, the cessation of all celebrations, and the closure of the chapels, including this one donated to the FAI, were ordered. Only in 1992 did the Jews officially return to Trento, as a plaque affixed by the municipality recalls.

From chapel to “classroom“

Since 1965, therefore, this has no longer been a place of worship, but is nevertheless a place of great cultural value: not only for its architecture and decoration, but above all because it is an unmissable testimony to a chapter of history that represents a dark pageof our past, and which for this very reason, all the more reason why it must be preserved and recounted, to hand down the memory of what was, and must no longer be.

That is why the FAI has decided to reopen this place with a new function: to educate the citizens of today and especially of tomorrow, i.e. young people in schools, for whom it is primarily intended.

This is why it is called Simonino’s ‘Classroom’: because it aims to be like a classroom outside of school; a space open and available to teachers in schools throughout Trentino and beyond, so that they may find, starting with listening to this story, which bears witness to a tragic episode of historical anti-Semitism, an opportunity to make young people reflect, compare and discuss on issues that are still, and in particular in these times, absolutely topical: from religious intolerance, which still causes wars, near and far, to the deadly and destructive power that prejudices and falsehoods have in sowing hatred, which is still expressed on the battlefield, but also more simply on the web, in violence against the other, just because they are unknown or different.

Culture is the antidote, the knowledge of truth, history and the other, and the FAI’s mission* is precisely to educate to knowledge through Italy’s cultural heritage places that hold evocative and meaningful stories: instructive like this one.

12 July 2024

The inauguration took place in Trento on 12 July 2024 in the Aula del Simonino, in the presence of: Marco Magnifico, FAI President; Francesca Gerosa, Vice-President and Councillor for Education, Culture and Sport, Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities Policies of the Autonomous Province of Trento; Franco Ianeselli, Mayor of Trento; Chiara Ghetta, Headmistress of the Istituto Comprensivo Trento 6; Daniela Bruno, FAI Deputy Director General for Cultural Affairs.

“In a year heavily marked by the tragedies produced by the dramatic and rampant resurgence of anti-Semitism, FAI intervenes by narrating for all time and for all an exemplary story that reaffirms how only culture and knowledge can counteract hatred and ignorance, which are the nourishment of those tragedies. A hall – and no longer a chapel – concretely dedicated to the education of the younger generations in the hope of less gloomy times”. Marco Magnifico, FAI President

“Thanks to Marina Larcher Fogazzaro’s generous bequest and the FAI’s commitment, this place opens up with a new educational function. The name ‘classroom’ is no coincidence: here history comes to life outside the classroom and our students will not only be able to confront a dark page of our history, but learn the fundamental values of tolerance, understanding, truth and become aware and respectful citizens”. The comment by Francesca Gerosa, Vice President and Councillor for Education, Culture and Sport, Family, Youth and Equal Opportunities Policies of the Autonomous Province of Trento

“Thanks to Trento’s FAI delegation* and its national organization for having returned an important piece of its history to the city. The Aula del Simonino,’ said Trento’s Mayor Franco Ianeselli, ‘is not only a work of rare artistic value, but an important testimony of how ideological prejudice can manipulate the truth in every historical period. The beauty of art meets the rigor of scientific research in this restoration, and the dramatic episode of the Simonino is thus transformed into a symbol of the fight against intolerance, an invitation to mutual knowledge and understanding‘.The restoration and enhancement work were carried out by FAI thanks to the fruitful collaboration with public bodies and the contributions of private individuals, companies and citizens. We would like to thank the Autonomous Province of Trento, which contributed to the restoration of the facades of Palazzo Bortolazzi Larcher Fogazzaro, and the Municipality of Trento for their patronage. We would like to thank the Associazione Amici del FAI*, Giovanna degli Avancini, Richard A. Smith, Round Table 10 Trento. Thanks also to the Soprintendenza per i beni e le attività culturali.

*articles in Italian