A project that unites faith, devotion and tradition

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Initiative

It is about a project which combines faith, devotion and tradition, meant to bring into the world a message of hope, but also the timeless textile art of Bergamo. Since April 2020, the first field cultivated under flax grew in Val Gandino (Bergamo), an event connected to the project "Lino Val Gandino – the fabric, the relic of the world". It is about a local initiative which had the support of the CISS, the International Studies on the Shroud, the only centre in the world recognized by the Papal Custodian of the Shroud. The project aims to restore the crop and the culture of the linen and it allowed to create certified copies in scale 1:1 of the Holy Shroud.

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The area, the first seeds were planted in, belongs to the Torri family and it is sited in Gandino (Bergamo) in Via Resendenza, not far away from the convent of the Ursuline Nuns, founded in 1818. The leader of the project is the Municipality of Peia which aims to restore the crop and the culture of the linen, getting to produce (within Easter) certified copies of the Holy Shroud. This initiative, concretely supported by Municipality of Gandino, “Le Cinque terre della Val Gandino” District, GAL Valle Seriana and by Laghi Bergamaschi and Uniacque, puts the focus on a vocation still detectable in specific “places of history”.

The cultivation of flax has been practiced for centuries in Val Gandino, as confirmed by the studies conducted in 2009 by the late surveyor Ivan Moretti. He worked for the environmental recovery of the , located in the Pizzo village in the Municipality of Peia, which was connected to the merchant trade and to the . We can find properties of the Torri family here too, a family devoted to wool, linen and canvas weaving since the nineteenth century. The family company, nowadays known as Torri Lana 1885, is one of the most ancient textile companies of the Valle.

The planting of the Gandino field took place in April 2020, in the middle of the Covid – 19 pandemic, which has tragically hit Bergamo and in particular the Val Seriana and the Val Gandino. After the flowering, visible just for one day, on the 5th August 2020, the harvest has taken place. It has been possible to cultivate the Eden type thanks to the availability of the farmer Clemente Savoldelli, with the support of Angelo Savoldelli, responsible of the community of the Mais Spinato di Gandino, assisted by a group of young voluntaries of Gandino and Peia.