Overview

The tradition of setting up the nativity scene of the Ursuline Nuns has been carried on for decades in the Monastery of Santa Maria in Valle. This precious work of popular craftsmanship, consisting of figurines with wax heads and hands and a body made of cloth, originated in the 18th century according to spoken tradition, while studies on costumes place it in the second half of the 19th century. The nuns had baptised these statuettes with Friulian names such as Iustin, Agnul, Checo, Min, Zef, Nadal, Tin, Vigi, Toni, Bepo, Meni, Ursule, Sunte, Mariane, Mariute, Menie, Angiule, Filumene, Pine and Sante. After a period of absence, the Ursuline Crib was brought back in December 2004 in the same place where it was set up in the past, at the former Ursuline laundry under the bell tower of the Church of San Giovanni Battista. The statuettes, therefore, commemorate the people who frequented the markets and streets of Cividale in the 19th century.