Master of Art: Gianni Spada

Lu sule, lu mare, lu ientu 

'The sun, the sea and the wind' have shaped Apulia, the 'heel' of boot-shaped Italy. It's a peninsula of a peninsula, reaching out across the Adriatic towards Albania, a land of olive groves, rocky beaches, with mountains in the north and vast tracts of fertile farmland, timeless villages, and busy ports.  It's the home of Gianni Spadavecchia. His last name means 'old sword' in English but inworld, he shortens it to just Spada - way easier to type.  

Gianni Spada at the HIE conference in October.
Apulia is called 'Puglia' in Italian - don't let that g fool you, it's pronounced Pull-ya

Italy has the most UNESCO sites in the world, and there are 1.5k museums in the country. So much history! There are about 300 recognized archeological sites, but you'd have to add several zeroes to that figure if you were to count all the places with notable archeology. With so much out there, it would be completely impractical to make them all accessible. There just aren't the resources to preserve, protect, excavate and investigate every single one of them, so many of these treasures remain buried, or otherwise undeveloped in terms of a visitor friendly  destination. And of course, not all of us can take a day trip to Italy to check out these fascinating treasures.

That's where virtual worlds can be a boon. By making realistic recreations of historical artefacts, anyone can go see them, without those pesky airplane trips, hiking boots, applications for special permission, and confusing GPS instructions... what a relief. Gianni Spada's region on Craft showcases a few Apulian treasures, both well known and totally unknown to most people - probably even locals. He gave an interesting talk about this project at the recent Hypergrid International Expo. The talk is in Italian, but if you mod your settings, you can see the auto generated English subtitles, which will give you a fair idea of what he was saying.

Arriving at the Welcome area of Gianni's region on Craft grid, Called Artemaestra, you'll immediately be aware of Gianni's different uses of opensim for work, for art, and for history. He's a bit of a polymath - his CV lists a bunch of titles, so be sure to check that out. 

Let's buzz off straight to the Puglia artefacts part of the build, an attractive little island connected to other islands by some monumental bridges. It's always nice when you can walk and drive around a region.

Coastal Towers are a notable feature of this sim. These picturesque square  buildings have a long and serious history. They were built in the 14 and 1500's, as watchtowers, so that the sea could be constantly scanned for the arrival of pirates, or ships from the Ottoman Empire. 

It was modern technology to resolve a problem that had plagued the local farmers, fishermen, travellers, merchants, and their families all through the medieval period. Now, if an unfamiliar sail was seen on the horizon, the locals could be ready, and choose fight or flight depending on their situation. 

The next most visible piece of architecture on this island is of course The Eternal Father church, which in RL is in Giovinazzo, near the port city of Bari. First mentioned in writing in 1269 but probably a bit older than that, this building was part church and part hospital - which meant in medieval times a sort of social center where not only the poor and sick could get help, but also a waystation for pilgrims heading to Jerusalem.

Gianni's build gives you all kinds of extra info about this ancient building, which today can't really be visited, as it's structurally unsafe.

But if you think the 1200''s is a long time ago, there's more. The 'Dolmen della Chianca' is a slice of history from about 1000 BC. Chianca can be translated as plank, and this tunnel tomb is indeed a megalithic construction, a gallery tomb that was first discovered about a hundred years ago and has since been continually the subject of studies and cultural interest.

Gianni couldn't make a Puglia build without including the famous stone houses, called 'trulli' that are particularly spectacular in the town of Alberobello, although they are found all over that area. You can visit a few of these one-room houses set in a gaily decorated courtyard...

... but there's also a really interesting explanation into the backstory of trulli building techniques, a nice reminder that just because something can be called 'old technology' doesn't mean it isn't super cool, quite literally.

Visit Gianni's region on craft for yourself, to take a deep dive in this fascinating piece of our world.

HG Address:  craft-world.org:8002:Artemaestra