Venue: Varie zone di Grado
Fifty years ago, after months spent in temporary accommodation and, above all, following the violent tremors of September, thousands of people were forced to leave the villages affected by the Friuli earthquake.
As winter approached, around 6,500 displaced people found hospitality and support in Grado. The town’s hotels, homes, schools and services were all drawn into an extraordinary experience of hospitality and collective solidarity, which symbolically united the sea and the mountains and left a deep mark on the community’s memory.
Fifty years on from those days, the Municipality of Grado is dedicating the programme “Seagulls Do Not Live in the Mountains – 1976–2026” to that history: a journey through theatre, personal accounts, books, music and initiatives dedicated to remembrance and passing on this legacy to new generations.
The urgency to leave, the desire to return. Memory, hospitality, community.
The origin of the title
“Seagulls do not live in the mountains” is not merely the title chosen for the exhibition. These are words that come straight from 1976.
They were spoken by a six-year-old boy, one of the many children from Friuli taken in by Grado following the earthquake. His story was recounted in the pages of Il Gazzettino and subsequently reprinted in the special issue of the Bollettino Municipale that the Municipality of Grado dedicated, in the autumn of 1976, to the reception of the displaced.
When asked why he wanted to return home, despite the warm welcome he had received in Grado, the boy replied by invoking the image of seagulls: seagulls must live by the sea, just as he felt the need to return to live near his mountains.
Fifty years on, those simple words form the central theme of the exhibition, encapsulating in a powerful image both the urgency to leave and the desire to return.
The Municipality of Grado is now trying to track down that boy, now an adult, so as to once again give a name and a voice to his testimony.
11 September: the memory of an embrace
The centrepiece of the exhibition will be the event on Friday 11 September at 6.30 pm, in the Town Council Chamber.
“1976–2026: the memory of an embrace” will bring together the voices of the communities at the heart of that experience: representatives from the areas from which most of the displaced people came, the local authorities and citizens of Grado who took part in welcoming them, and those who helped organise the daily lives of the thousands of people who arrived in the town.
Special attention will be given to schools and children, through the testimonies of those who organised the extra classes needed to accommodate the pupils from Friuli.
It will be a multi-voiced account to recall what happened and, above all, to gather and pass on to new generations the memories of those who lived through those days.
Programme
1st September – 9.00 pm
Voices from the Earthquake 1976–2026
Open-air theatre organised by Grado Teatro
Villa Teresa – Riva Ugo Foscolo
11th September – 6.30 pm
1976–2026: the memory of an embrace
Grado commemorates the Friuli earthquake
Town Council Chamber – Piazza Biagio Marin 4
7th October – 5.00 pm
The Fault Within. What Remains of 6 May 1976
Book launch by Walter Tomada – Edizioni Biblioteca dell’Immagine
“Falco Marin” Public Library – Via Leonardo da Vinci 20
23rd October – 8.45 pm
Orcolat ’76
Theatre production by Simone Cristicchi, organised by ERT – Regional Theatre Authority of Friuli Venezia Giulia
Biagio Marin Auditorium – Via Marchesini 31
Tickets: BUY ONLINE
12th November – 5.00 pm
And she came down from the mountain!
A Friulian girl in the 1976 earthquake
Book launch by Paola Troppo
“Falco Marin” Public Library – Via Leonardo da Vinci 20
13th November – 10.30 am
Memory takes root
Planting of a young ash tree donated by the communities of Trasaghis and sourced from the “Pascul” regional forest nursery
Rose Garden
20th December – 4.00 pm
Between sea and mountains
Songs and poems to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Friuli earthquake, featuring the Santa Cecilia Choir of Grado and Sot La Nape of Villa Santina. Readings of poems by Biagio Marin and Novella Cantarutti, curated by Tullio Svettini.
Basilica of Saint Euphemia
The programme is organised in collaboration with the Parish of Saint Euphemia and local associations.
All events are free of charge, with the exception of the play Orcolat ’76 by Simone Cristicchi, which forms part of the 2026/2027 theatre season organised by the Municipality of Grado in collaboration with the ERT – Regional Theatre Authority of Friuli Venezia Giulia.