Mu.MA – Museoteatro della Commenda di Prè Museum-theatre
The Ospitale della Commenda di San Giovanni di Prè is a very old building: it dates back to the year 1180 and was built to serve as a support and assistance to pilgrims and crusaders going to or returning from the Holy Land.
Since May 2009, after years of restoration and archaeological research, the Commenda presents a "museoteatro" (museum-theatre), where the documents of history become image and spectacle thanks to the collaboration between Mu.MA and Teatro del Suono.Sophisticated technologies allow to animate the ancient walls, bringing back to life the characters of the time: Genoese like Friar Guglielmo, the builder of the building, Caffaro or Benedetto Zaccaria, travellers who passed through Genoa, like the Sephardic Jew Beniamino da Tudela or the Arab geographer Al-Idrisi, Bishop Giacomo da Vitry, but also protagonists of the Crusades who fought the Genoese or collaborated with them, in Syria and Palestine, such as Balian of Ibelin or the Saladin, the Kurdish-born Sultan, who re-conquered Jerusalem in 1187.
The strong message conveyed by the new layout is that no one should feel like a foreigner in Genoa. The concept of interculturality is at the heart of the events of the Museoteatro because the Commenda was born to give hospitality to pilgrims and wayfarers connecting different peoples and cultures. In the meantime it has also become a point of reference for inter-religious events with foreign communication and a suggestive location for receptions.
