A museum dedicated to Frederick II, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and king of Germany and Sicily in the Middle Ages, will open in his birth city of Jesi, in the Marche region.
The museum will be inaugurated on July 1.
A Hohenstaufen and grandson of Federick I Barbarossa, Frederick II (1194-1250) was born in 1194 in a tent in the square in front of Palazzo Ghisleri that will house the multimedia museum.
Frederick , who was called Stupor Mundi (wonder of the world), always felt a strong connection with Jesi, describing it in a letter in 1239 as "the noble city of Marca" and "our Bethlehem".
The museum is dedicated to his extraordinary life and was created thanks to entrepreneur Gennaro Pieralisi, who chairs the foundation dedicated to the emperor, Fondazione Federico II Stupor Mundi.
The initiative was organized funding from private donors and the Fondazione Marche, in cooperation with the city of Jesi and the foundations Fondazione Carisj, Fondazione Federico II Hohenstaufen, Fondazione Pergolesi Spontini and the Marche region. The museum's curator is Anna Laura Trombetti Budriesi, a professor of medieval history at the University of Bologna, with the support of researchers Laura Pasquini and Tommaso Duranti.
The museum's interior decoration was made by the company Volume srl based in Milan, which leads a team of companies including Euphon, Studio'80, Castagna-Ravelli and Sydonia Production. The exhibition focuses on the various aspects of Frederick's personality, his role as a politician, leader and intellectual who surrounded himself with poets from the Sicilian School.
A Norman by origin, he was fascinated by eastern and Arab culture and had many interests including medicine, astronomy, math and falconry on which he wrote a treaty that is still used.
The museum includes 16 rooms divided by themes over three floors with multimedia installations to help visitors understand the life of Frederick II and his role in, among others, policies towards the papacy and the Sixth Crusade when he conquered many areas of the Holy Land, crowning himself King of Jerusalem.
The themes include the birth and history of his ancestors; his crowning ceremony in St Peter's; his relationship with popes and the Church; the Crusade; his wives and offspring; his passion for falconry, the arts and science.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
