Monteriggioni is crowned of Towers

In this direction and within this framework, the Middle Ages are becoming the main "brand" of Monteriggioni and the festival “Monteriggioni is crowned of Towers”, together with the Via Francigena, represents a leading event in fostering this image.

The Medieval Festival

The festival is now in its 28th yearly edition, without interruptions. It is among the oldest, if not the oldest in Italy. Due to its average duration of 6 days (two weekends in July) and its large scale (the entire castle), it gets to be the true and public Trojan horse to attract tourism throughout the whole year in this area.

The festival is the quintessential image of the Monteriggioni cultural district; it represents the event that captures media and appeals to the collective imagination of people.

From an economic point of view, it helps in giving supra-local visibility to Monteriggioni’s cultural heritage (historical, artistic, landscape, artisanal, eno-gastronomic) and, acting as an attraction for Italian and foreign visitors, it brings new opportunities for development, increasing the flow of tourists as well as enhancing local development. In this sense, the festival represents the main and primary event to build the image of Monteriggioni, its real calling card, spreading the territory’s brand and appeal.

The festival helps more than ever in advertising Monteriggioni

and in welcoming in the best way the events that take place throughout the year. Its benefits on satellite economy is not immediately perceivable, but it becomes evident in the circulation of resources that invests the entire community during the event days, as well as in the long-lasting wealth it produces in building the image of a territory.

The whole population is directly engaged in the project, together with its local associations, educating the younger part of the community to respect and value historical heritage. The local associations are a very important resource for the festival, but also for all of the cultural activities carried out by the Municipal Authority. They are in fact a social substrate to be involved and valued in the best possible way, both for specific events and for the growth of a prepared, passionate and attentive local society in regard to cultural issues. In fact, culture is not an elitist frill; culture achieves its objectives, and is therefore realized, only if it is widespread and popular in the meaning we are giving to the term in these context. Developing these aspects means, in the long run, guaranteeing to our territory actively committed citizens.

The first step for future developments is therefore to start from the citizen’s active and constant engagement; their contribution definitely enriches the festival.