After the sixteenth century, also the seventeetnth century in ISIG’s Hidden Trento app

The PURE – Public Renaissance: Urban Cultures of Public Space between Early Modern Europe and the Present – project, funded by Humanities in the European Research Area (HERA), has among its goals to make the history of cities available to a wide range of users. Among its outcomes, it is worth mentioning the smartphone app ‘Hidden Trento,’ published by Fondazione Bruno Kessler’s Italian-German Historical Institute (ISIG) (ISIG head: Massimo Rospocher; historians: Umberto Cecchinato, Alessandro Paris, David Rosenthal, Enrico Valseriati). Tested since November 2020 with two routes dedicated to the urban history of the 16th century, it has now been enriched with new figures of the 17th century.

Great guides take users through the streets of Trento. Ursula, the German innkeeper who was protagonist of the first walking tour set in 1520 in the S. Pietro neighborhood (Princes, innkeepers and migrants), and Angelo, the Council Secretary, the main character of a walking tour of the city set in 1563 (The City of the Council), are joined by Bartolo, the corpse carrier, and Horace, the canon, narrators in 1658 respectively of The City of the Dead, dedicated to the story of processions to ward off plagues, and The Cross and the Sword, which takes us amid power struggles after the death of the last prince-bishop of the Madruzzo family.

The four walking tours now available on the app and on the website www.hiddencities.eu enhance the historical and artistic heritage preserved in Trentino’s museums and offer an unprecedented point of view to learn about Trento’s history in the modern age, both to those who live there and to tourists.

In 2021, the project obtained funding from the Trento Chamber of Commerce and the Trento, Monte Bondone Provincial Tourism Agency. The last two routes, presented to the public at the Museo Diocesano Tridentino on January 18, 2023, on the other hand, stemmed from the close synergy between the Museo Diocesano Tridentino and historians from the Istituto Storico Italo-Germanico, made possible by a CARITRO grant.

Hidden Trento promotes the history of urban spaces in the modern age, enhances city’s museum collections and is freely available in digital stores in three languages (Italian, English and German).

• More info at:
  • Hidden Cities Website
  • App Hidden Trento (free download for iOS and Android)
  • https://twitter.com/HiddenTrento