RABAT, DECEMBER 1 – The Lipizzan horse breeding tradition, a transnational candidacy in which Italy had a part, and the Verona street game project Tocatì entered UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity lists today. The decision was announced during the 17th session of the Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee chaired in Rabat by Italian expert Pier Luigi Petrillo. The two entries bring to 17 the number of Italian items on the Intangible Heritage lists.
The candidacy of the Lipizzan Horse, submitted by Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, puts the spotlight on a very ancient but still living tradition that unites different peoples with a common cultural identity linked to the love of animals. Lipizzan horse breeding traditions were initially used to breed horses for the Habsburg imperial court in Vienna, but today the Lipizzan horse plays a special role in the everyday cultural and social life of communities in rural areas. They are included in events, celebrations and festivities such as horse blessings, carnival processions and parades. The horses also play a key role in therapeutic riding and sustainable tourism. Since the breed’s creation in 1580 in the city of Lipica (present-day Slovenia), the Lipizzan horse spread throughout the countries of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. According to UNESCO, Lipizzan horse breeding has united communities for over 450 years, generating a strong sense of shared identity, including through its specialized vocabulary and the close emotional connection between breeders and horses. In Italy the practice is based in the municipalities of Montelibretti and Monterotondo, in the Tiber Valley, northeast of Rome, where the Lipizzan Stables run by the Research Center “Zootechnics and Aquaculture” of the CREA (Council for Research in Agriculture and Analysis of Agricultural Economics, supervised by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry) are located.
Tocatì is a traditional Veronese street game. As part of coordinated efforts to safeguard traditional games and sports in Italy, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus and France, the Associazione Giochi Antichi launched Tocatì (‘it’s your turn’), a festival and platform uniting communities, groups and individuals that practice traditional games. In inscribing it among the ‘good practices’ of humanity, UNESCO congratulated Italy – the country leading the candidacy – for having developed over many years a shared path between communities. The Tocatì program involves men and women, young and old, from that come to Verona every year, recreating and reliving the traditional games of the past, so as to enable them to keep memory alive.
During the proceedings, UNESCO also inscribed the art of the French baguette, Tunisian Harissa, Slovenia’s traditional plum liqueur, China’s and Uzbekistan tea cultivation, while it postponed the inscription of Afghanistan’s traditional painting due to the deficiency in the information provided. (@OnuItalia)
