VEGLIA IN COMUNANZA
1st of june, 2025
Cultural Farmers’ Association of Colognole
Pontassieve, Florence (IT)
Meeting and concert
Organized by La Leggera, as part of the Creative Europe Tramontana IV project.
The group from the Marches: “Comunanza canora,” host of this public initiative, takes its name from the “comunanze,” also known as ‘comunelli’ and more commonly “usi civici.” “Usi civici” are real rights belonging to a community over land, woods, or real estate, often for purposes related to agriculture, grazing, or resource collection. These customary rights allow the community to use these assets to meet essential needs, such as grazing, collecting firewood, or harvesting forest products. “Usi civici” are therefore rights belonging to a community over public or private property, more common in rural, mountainous, and hilly areas.
They originated in the Middle Ages, particularly during the feudal era, and were established within local communities as a means of ensuring access to and use of local resources in the face of advancing feudal power. From the Alps to the Apennines, civic uses still survive in many places today. For a long time in Tuscany, “civic uses” were a vital condition for the survival of pastoralism and the practice of transhumance between the Apennines and the Maremma, thanks precisely to the wide availability of almost free pastureland, both in the mountains and along the Tyrrhenian coast.
The “twinning” between “La leggera” APS and “Comunanza canora” is based on a shared interest in current processes of neo-ruralism and the practice of traditional oral singing as a critical action towards society.
The initiative was characterized by a very interesting comparison/encounter between the two realities.