In depth
What it is
"In ArteCiro" is a Neapolitan nativity scene by a master craftsman, set up every winter in Ravenna, in the Auditorium of the Ufficio Anagrafe del Comune, at viale Enrico Berlinguer 30. It is the work of Ciro Aurilia, a craftsman of Neapolitan origin who has lived in Ravenna for decades and who for years has brought to the city the great eighteenth-century Neapolitan nativity tradition. This is not a mechanical nativity scene or one of large urban dimensions, but an author's composition crafted down to the smallest detail, designed to introduce the people of Romagna to Neapolitan nativity art. Admission is free.
What makes it special
What distinguishes this nativity scene above all is the artisan technique with which each figure is made. The mannequins have an internal structure of wire shaped into spirals, onto which heads, hands and feet in terracotta are applied, finished with ceramic glaze; the eyes are glass, the clothes are hand-sewn with fabrics chosen to faithfully reproduce the costumes and trades of the eighteenth-century Neapolitan people. Nothing is mass-produced: Aurilia personally creates each statuette, including clothes and accessories. The result is a choral and theatrical composition, with shepherds, common folk, innkeepers and street vendors around the Nativity grotto, set up in an unusual place for this kind of tradition, a municipal exhibition hall in Romagna. In 2025 the exhibition reached its thirty-first edition.
Origins and history
Ciro Aurilia was born in Naples, where as a child he built his first nativity scenes on wooden fruit crates brought home by his father, a street vendor. After moving to Ravenna, where he has lived for about forty years, he continued to cultivate this passion, transforming it into true artistic work: for about thirty years he has been creating nativity scenes in eighteenth-century Neapolitan style, becoming a recognised presence in the city's Christmas scene. Over the years his exhibition, known as "In ArteCiro", has been hosted in different venues, from the church of San Biagio to other city exhibition spaces, up to the current Auditorium dell'Anagrafe. The sources consulted do not report in detail how the composition has changed from edition to edition, but the numbering having reached the thirty-first edition testifies to a continuity now spanning three decades.
What you see
Visitors find an atmospheric nativity scene, with the Nativity grotto at the centre and around it a small Neapolitan popular world: characters in costume, shops, taverns, markets and scenes of eighteenth-century daily life, populated by shepherds, fishermen, housewives and street vendors. The attention to detail, from the expressions on the terracotta faces to the hand-sewn fabric clothes, allows close observation of the richness of the Neapolitan nativity tradition, even though it is in a municipal hall in Ravenna, far from its Neapolitan places of origin.
When and how to visit
The nativity scene traditionally opens during the Christmas period, between early December and the first days of January. In the last edition it was open from 6 December to 9 January, with the following hours: Monday to Friday from 8.30 to 13.00, Tuesday and Thursday also from 14.30 to 16.30, Saturday from 8.30 to 12.30. Admission is free. For the current edition it is advisable to check the updated dates and times on the Comune di Ravenna website or at the city tourist office, as they may vary slightly from year to year.
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