Pentema ia an ancient mountain village (825 m a.s.l.), whose origin dates back to XIV century, and its historical center is the most typical of the municipality of Torriglia. As it is difficut to reach, its long isolation has contributed to maintain its original urban structure, with houses arranged in ranks around the church, according to the slope. The creche was conceived and first set in 1995, with the purpose of attracting visitors and bring life in the village even during the winter. The creche of Pentema is not closed in a church or in an oratory, and not even confined in a limited space, but its frame is the whole village; it is set in the alleys and in the very houses, under the arcs, on the terraces and staircases of stone. The characters, dummies of natural size, represent ancient occupations and moments of the daily life in the end of the XIX century. They wear clothes and accessories typical of that age and are placed in the spots where they really operated.
An ancient house in stone
The creche is set in every corner of the village ... even the man at the window is a dummy
Along the pathway, the visitors meets many occupations of every day life: women that wash and hang out the laundry, men and children cutting the firewood and putting it away, the carpenter with plane and saws, the blacksmith working the iron, the mattress-maker carding the wool, the peasants with tools to cut the hay, the baker with flour and bread, the arrotino, the shoemaker soling boots, the barber with the razor in his hands. Along the narrow lanes. the visitors meet the children playing and even an old school perfectly rebuilded. And there is the shop, with counter and scale, displaying the essential goods, for the mountain people. In a nearby meadow, a shepherd monitors the sheep that graze between grass and snow, while a hunter is by the door, ready to put itself in gear. The patway ends at the stable of the Nativity, where some characters, in adoration of the Child Jesus, were recreated from artists of the wood, with features resembling old inhabitant of the village, now dead, but still alive int he memories of those who survive.
Woman hanging the laundry |
Carding the wool |
The young shepherd |
The kitchen |
The hunter
