Local youngsters wearing colourful medieval costume, including pre-teen girls and a boy toddler, stand hand-in-hand as they wait in Piazza Guglielmo Marconi at Anagni, Lazio, Italy, for a signal to walk downhill in an historical August pageant honouring Saint Magnus of Anagni, their patron saint. The pageant also recalls Anagni’s past as The City of the Popes, the summer residence of pontiffs seeking cooler refuge from Rome’s summer heat. The girls wear long overgowns or surcoats with their hair held back by decorative headbands.
Anagni, Lazio, Italy: local youngsters wearing colourful medieval costume hold hands as they wait in Piazza Guglielmo Marconi for a signal to continue walking downhill in an historical pageant honouring Saint Magnus, Anagni’s patron saint, and recalling the town’s past as the summer residence of emperors and popes. The pre-teen girls wear overgowns or surcoats in apricot, red or white and have their hair held back by decorative headbands. Roman emperors including Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Commodus and Caracalla spent their summers in Anagni, an ancient hill town about 71 km (44 miles) southeast of Rome. Hundreds of years later, between the 11th and 14th centuries, it hosted the papal court, became widely known as the City of the Popes and was the birthplace of pontiffs Gregory IX and Boniface VIII. The papal palace still stands and is now a museum. Anagni’s annual medieval pageant in August honours the 3rd century AD bishop and martyr San Magno di Anagni. As Bishop of Trani, Magnus worked to spread Christianity in Anagni and neighbouring towns, but was executed after Roman soldiers found him hiding in a cave. He became Anagni’s patron saint after 1901, when his skeletal remains were buried in the crypt of its cathedral, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Annunziata.
Size: 2819px × 1873px
Location: Anagni, Lazio, Italy
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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