Itinerario accessibile nel centro storico di Clusone

Clusone's historic-centre accessibility project uses inclusive interpretation at cultural landmarks including the sanctuary, civic museum, clock tower, basilica and Dance of Death. Its panels offer audioguides, sign-language videos and audio descriptions.

Why it matters

The provincial tourism portal documents the project as part of a regional programme for accessible and inclusive tourism. In Clusone's sloping historic centre, its interpretation links civic and religious heritage through multiple formats, including QR-code content.

What to notice

The interpretation includes the Chiesa della Beata Vergine del Paradiso, with a fifteenth-century fresco of the Madonna Addolorata, and the MAT Museo Arte Tempo in frescoed Palazzo Marinoni Barca, whose works include paintings by Cavagna and Palma il Giovane and sculptures by Giacomo Manzù. It also connects the civic clock tower with the basilica of Santa Maria Assunta and the Danza Macabra oratory. These landmarks reflect the historic centre's religious, civic and artistic layers.

Context and history

The itinerary is a product of Clusone's deliberate turn to inclusive tourism. The Touring Club Italiano records that the town's strategic development plan flagged its tourist signage as inconsistent in 2021, and that the resulting system, designed with the creative studios of Skylab, placed ten panels at points of interest, six city maps and eleven directional signs, with an interactive map at the Visit Clusone infopoint. The signage was embedded in the S.T.A.I. programme, Services for Accessible and Inclusive Tourism, led by Visit Bergamo for Regione Lombardia under a government call funding accessible tourism, and expanded through the municipality's own PNRR-funded inclusive cultural itineraries project financed by EU NextGenerationEU. The portal describes panels installed in 2023 with QR-linked text, audioguides, LIS sign-language videos, audio descriptions and augmented-reality content. A 2024 Touring Club account reports audioguides in Italian, English and Ukrainian and virtual tours of interior rooms where barriers cannot be removed in a protected historic building.