A collection of vintage photos to rediscover local history

Castelnuovo nigra

“Once upon a time … Sale and Villa Castelnuovo. Vacation, mountain tours, people and animals in the early twentieth century Castelnuovo Nigra “: this is the title given to the extraordinary event dedicated to the discovery of period photographs, a corpus of almost 2000 splendid high-definition images testifying to the life of a bourgeois family in the small town located at the foot of the Bella Dormiente.

A selection of about 70 images was presented on Wednesday 10 August by Nadia Bontempo during the dedicated evening organized by the Pro loco of Castelnuovo Nigra and the Canapisium Association: in an imaginary journey alongside the protagonists of the Croce family, over 200 people flew with the memory of the first decades of the twentieth century and of the town of that time. Given the success, the speakers are planning other evenings dedicated to images from the beginning of the short century. The photos were in a suitcase in an attic of an uninhabited house and, during the renovation works, thanks to the glance of the impresario Franco Benedetto, Nella Caretto and Valentino Ceresa became the lucky keepers of exclusive and unpublished images of history rose in the years between 1900 and the end of the thirties of the twentieth century.

“Thanks to these images we can walk alongside the protagonist family through the streets of the town that was changing – tell the discoverers. – The family is, in all probability, the Croce family: we recognize Giovanni Croce, grandson of Costantino Nigra, with his wife Corinna, the parents and the two children whom we see children we carry out until their youth. Doctor Croce is a person whose fame in the village has never faded as the first doctor and health officer of Sale. His willingness to assist the sick, free of charge in the case of the poorest, has remained in the memory of the people of Sale. The eye of the photographer and the photographer is truly generous in showing us both the splendid views and the simple but hard life of the mountaineers, both on holidays and religious celebrations and on days of heavy work. A very large space is dedicated to animals: cows, sheep, goats and even pigs are portrayed grazing ». –