OUR HEROES
ISTITUTO UGO MURSIA CARINI, ITALIA LICEUL „VOIEVODUL MIRCEA” TÂRGOVIȘTE, ROMÂNIA 100.YIL MESLEKI VE TEKNIK ANADOLU LISESI, KARAMURSEL TURCIA YSGOL GYFUN CWM RHYMNI CAERPHILLY, WALES
March, 02th - 04th , 2022
Virtual meeting Romania 2-4 March 2022
Giovanni Falcone e Paolo Borsellino The most important heroes fighting against the mafia. Their death has contributed to sensitize the public opinion on the phenomenon of Mafia in the effort to bring Mafia men to justice.
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Both gave life to Sicily's Antimafia Poool, a group of magistrates set up to investigate on Cosa Nostra and its infiltrations in the economic and political asset of the State.
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This brought to the so-called 'maxi trial' in 19861987, which led to the conviction of 342 mafiosi.
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The two men, who worked closely together, have posthumously become national heroes, martyrs of the country's ongoing attempts to get rid of the scourge of organized crime.
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As members of the Antimafia Pool both lived under constant police surveillance for their own protection.
Falcone's death did not establish the demise of the fight against the mafia
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On May 23rd 1992, Giovanni Falcone was assassinated in broad daylight, a crime that marked a turning point in Sicily's history.
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Falcone and his wife, the magistrate Francesca Morvillo, were killed along with their three security escorts when a bomb exploded under their car on the highway near the town of Capaci, in what has become known as the "Capaci's massacre".
A Memento not to Forget ✤
The mafia killers used more than 500 kilogrammes of explosives in the attack, which was ordered by the mafia godfather, Toto Rina, as a revenge for Falcone's attempts to break up their control of the territory.
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The brutal attack has been instrumental in turning many Sicilians against the mafia. Especially young people felt the assassination as an event that changed their view of mafia as a phenomenon.
Borsellino's death ✤
Two months after Falcone was murdered, fellow judge Paolo Borsellino was killed by another car bomb.
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On a Sunday afternoon of July 19th 1992, a parked Fiat loaded with TNT outside his mother's house in Via d'Amelio,, exploded at Borsellino’s arrival. It was an awful shock for the entire civic comminity.
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The magistrate was killed along with five of the six police officers working to protect him that day.
Falcone and Borsellino ✤
After their deaths they have received numerous awards and honors, gold medals for civil valor. Many schools and associations have been dedicated to the magistrates, including the "Falcone and Borsellino" international airport of Palermo
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In 2017, the Cosa Nostra's so-called 'boss of bosses' Toto Rina - who ordered the killing of Falcone and Borsellino died in prison. Totò Riina
Falcone and Borsellino
Chi ha paura muore ogni giorno, chi non ha paura muore una volta sola. (Paolo Borsellino)
Those who fear die everyday- those who don’t, die only once Gli uomini passano, le idee restano. Restano le loro tensioni morali e continueranno a camminare sulle gambe di altri uomini. (Giovanni Falcone)
People pass, ideas remain. Their moral intent will continue to walk on the legs of other people.
Giorgio Parisi Giorgio Parisi is the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 "for the discovery of the interplay of disorder and fluctuations in physical systems from atomic to planetary scales". "Giorgio Parisi is a giant, one of those on whose shoulders future generations will sit to scan the horizon of science and take a further step towards knowledge". A pioneer of complexity, his research of rules and balances inside chaotic systems hypothesizing mathematical instruments, may take to great discoveries in all the fields of human knowledge, from immunology to cosmology.
Life and career Born in Rome in 1948, Parisi completed his studies at the Sapienza University of Rome where he graduated in physics in 1970 under Nicola Cabibbo’s guidance. He began his scientific career at the INFN’s Frascati National Laboratories, first as a member of CNR-National Research Council of Italy( 1971-1973) and then as a researcher at INFN (19731981). During this time, he spent long periods abroad, first at Columbia University in New York (1973-1974), then at the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvettes (1976-1977), and at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris (1977-1978). In his scientific career, Giorgio Parisi has made many decisive and widely recognised contributions in different physics areas: particle physics, statistical mechanics, fluid dynamics, condensed matter, supercomputers.
Life and career He has been the winner of several advanced grants and is the author of over six hundred articles and contributions to scientific conferences and of several books and publications. His works are well known all over the world. He is a member of the Accademia dei Quaranta, the Académie des Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the European Academy and the American Philosophical Society. In 2021, the Italian physicist was awarded the Wolf Prize and was the first Italian academic to be included in the Clarivate Citation Laureates list for "ground-breaking discoveries in quantumchromodynamics and the study of complex disordered systems." .
Nobel prize Ceremony of October 5, 2021 The award was announced on Tuesday, October 5, by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm. Together with Giorgio Parisi, Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselman were also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2021 "for the physical modelling of Earth's climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming". During the ceremony, Maestro and pianist Marco Scolastra opened the event performing the National anthem and Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor. Giorgio Parisi, acclaimed by the people present at the event, was welcomed by the the scientific community and the most prominent authorities. Professor Parisi concluded the ceremony by remembering Nicola Cabibbo, his mentor, and thanking all the people who have collaborated with him during his scientific career.
Giorgio Parisi receiving the Nobel Prize in October 5 th
Parisi with the Italian President Sergio Mattarella in 2021
The discovery His scientific achievements have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. Parisi noticed the peculiarity of his discovery in 1979 when, instead of dwelling on a system, he broadened his gaze by considering more replicas of it, discovering precisely that the variables in question form small groups, which then in turn unite into larger groups and etc. There is therefore an order, even if looking under the microscope everything always appears messy. Over time, this discovery has become a paradigm and has made it possible to study many other systems that previously could not be understood. A tool that has allowed science to go further and find hidden rules on apparently random phenomena.
SALVATORE QUASIMODO
A great Sicilian poet and a prominent exponent of Hermeticism, a cultural movement of the 20th century.
Salvatore Quasimodo, born in Modica on 20th
August 1901,was an Italian poet and translator, a prominent exponent of Hermeticism. He contributed to the translation of Greek lyrics, and he also plays by Molière and William Shakespeare. He was the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1959. The following year he received an honorary degree from the University of Messina and in 1966 a degree from the University of Oxford. He is considered one of the most important Italian poets of the twentieth century.
THE POETIC OF QUASIMODO Quasimodo is the most important exponent of hermeticism, a 20th century school of poets rooted in the French Symbolism, based on rarefication of poetic images, occult symbols and a poetic language extremely personal and idiosyncratic, based on researched analogies and allusions. In the first part of his literary career, he exalts the bond with nature always combined with the sense of the exile that he personally experienced. Sicily and its sea are the sources of his inspiration and the main themes are the pain of life, the human fragility, the precariousness of human existence. During and after the world war II, the publication of his work “Day after day”, marked a change in his poetical inspiration. In this phase the was concerned with the interpretation of contemporary history, focusing on social commitment and anti-fascist ideals
“MAN OF MY TIME” You are still a man of the sling and of the stone, man of my time. You were in the cockpit, with the malignant wings, the deals of death, I saw you – in the chariot of fire on the gallows, at the breaking wheel. I saw you: it was you, with your exact science wooing slaughter, without love, without Christ. You killed again, as always, as your fathers killed, as those animals that saw you for the first time killed. And this blood smells of the blood that day When one brother said to another brother: “let’s go to the fields”. And that cold echo, dogged, passed down to you, within your day. Forget, oh sons, the clouds of blood Lifted from the earth, forget your fathers: their tombs sink into the ashes,
the black vultures, the wind, cover their hearts.
Sei ancora quello della pietra e della fionda, uomo del mio tempo. Eri nella carlinga, con le ali maligne, le meridiane di morte, t’ho visto – dentro il carro di fuoco, alle force, alle ruote di tortura. T’ho visto: eri tu, con la tua scienza esatta persuasa allo sterminio, senza amore, senza Cristo. Hai ucciso ancora, come sempre, come uccisero i padri, come uccisero gli animali che ti videro per la prima volta. E questo sangue odora come nel giorno Quando il fratello disse all’altro fratello: «Andiamo ai campi». E quell’eco fredda, tenace, è giunta fino a te, dentro la tua giornata. Dimenticate, o figli, le nuvole di sangue Salite dalla terra, dimenticate i padri: le loro tombe affondano nella cenere, gli uccelli neri, il vento, coprono il loro cuore.
Text Analysis “Man of my time” is a lyric included in the collection “Day after day”, published in 1947; Quasimodo was in Milan in August 1943 when the city was bombed by hundreds of planes and experienced the tragic condition of the war. It is not a coincidence that the first image of the poem portrays man as an aviator sitting in a cockpit of a combat plane. The main theme of this poem is the disaster of war and the tragic nature of the human condition, pervaded by a sense of horror cruelty and death; The poem aims to stir the conscience of the readers through images with extraordinary expressive power and to exhort the younger generations to forget their fathers, to repudiate their forebears and start a new era in which war cannot exist
Reflections The first macro sequence of the poem is characterized by the evocation of past and present through a series of images of the human barbarities over the centuries
The second macro sequence consists of a particularly intense and participatory appeal addressed to humanity of the present and future time, with the use of imperative and exhortative tone
READING THROUGH THE LINES The theme of the poem is the unchangeable nature of man, who is still the same as he was millions of years ago, the same as the man «of the sling and of the stone» guided by instinct, emotion and egotism. Man was and is still driven by a thirst for power that lead to suffering and destruction and war. The Innocents are their Victims. Man today as the poet states has lost respect for his brothers, has forgotten the solidarity and is exactly the same beast he was once. To break the chain of violence man must break with the past, with their fathers, because their tombs sink into the ruins of their own destruction while vultures and the wind cover their hearts.
“AND IT’S IMMEDIATELY EVENING” Everyone stands in the heart of the earth, pierced by a ray of sunshine: and it is immediately evening.
Text Analysis “And it’s immediately evening” is a masterpiece of the hermetic concentration of meaning and feelings. The text appeared for the first time in the collection "Water and lands“, published in 1930. The main theme is the tragic fate of man which is described in the moment of sunset that becomes for the poet an occasion for introspection and reflection on human life in its complexity.
This is a masterpiece in literature, because the poet shows us in just three verses the human condition with its sense of solitude, the pain of living and the brevity of life with powerful, sad and strong verses In the first verse, the poet reflects upon the condition of desolate loneliness that he shares with humanity, focusing on the sense of the precariousness of life and infinite. The second verse introduces a metaphor: the "ray of sunshine" that "pierced" man. The poet indicates on the one hand the vital power of sunlight, that illuminates man's path with light and heat but on the other hand the same ray pierces, turning into a sort of dart, death bearer. With the third and last verse, the poet recalls the theme of the brevity of life, the irreparable finiteness of human life, which ends with an epilogue of death.
SALVATORE QUASIMODO LITERARY PARK Salvatore Quasimodo Literary Park is located in Roccalumera, place of origin of the Quasimodo’s family. It was founded by the brothers Carlo end Sergio Mastroeni, with the collaboration of Alessandro Quasimodo, son of the poet. The Literary Park is located in the disused railway station in memory of the profession of the poet's father, Gaetano and his grandfather Vincenzo, for years deputy mayor of Roccalumera.
Let's go inside the museum…
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Inside the premises of the antique railway station of Roccalumera, where there is the main location of Quasimodo's Friends Club, you can see many mementos, documents, furniture, such as the study of his Milanese house and relics that belonged to the poet. It preserves also the Laurea Honoris Causa from the University of Messina, his private correspondence with Italian and foreign intellectuals, videos of Rai cases and foreign TV channels and tv shots of the Nobel Prize cerimony.
The park is the site of numerous meetings and events and has been visited annually by European partners of Erasmus projects .
Luisa Spagnoli and women’s emancipation Luisa Spagnoli, was born in Perugia on the 30th October, 1877. She was an Italian businesswoman, famous for having created a brand of women's clothing and a chocolate factory the Perugina with Giovanni Buitoni, with its headquarters in the historical centre of Perugia. Thanks to her extraordinary creativity, she founded two large companies which contributed to the process of industrialisation in Italy. She enhanced the women’s emancipation and enfranchisement in the working field in a pre-industrial society, imposing her position, not only as a woman but also as an entrepreneur.
L Luisa Spagnoli on the left and Giovanni Buitoni on the right
With the outbreak of World War I when men had to leave for the front, Luisa Spagnoli remained alone to carry on the business and her three children. After the war, the Perugina factory continued to grow employing more than 100 workers. In 1922, a brand of Italian chocolates called Baci Perugina ("Kisses") was created. The recipe has remained the same over the times: dark chocolate, gianduia, chopped hazelnuts and crowned with a whole hazelnut. By 1939, her chocolate brand Baci Perugina became an international success, arriving also in the US. Bacio Perugina
Thanks to her entrepreneurship, at the end of the war, she created a new company, breeding poultry and angora rabbits. In 1928, she thought of using angora yarn for knitwear including shawls, boleros, and fashionable garments which she trademarked as the Angora Spagnoli. At the Milan exhibition, her innovation was showcased, and the activity of the company expanded considerably, becoming famous all over the world. On the left official flyer of the Fiera di Milano 1928, on the right specimen of angora rabbits
Spagnoli's son Mario transitioned the company from fine crafts to a more industrialized focus in 1937. He was credited with the invention of a comb for collection of wool and a clamp for tattooing angora rabbits, which were patented in 1942. In 1947, Mario built La Città dell'angora (Angora city) factory, located at the centre of a growing community. In the 1960s, he also founded the playground of the Città della Domenica originally called Spagnolia, that remains a destination for visitors to this day.
On the top Angora city factory, on the left middle the Città della Domenica, on the middle right Perugia Calcio logo, on the bottom Luisa Spagnoli Shop
Saga of the Florio Family Rise and fall of an economic empire in a story of four generations
Paolo Florio 1772-1807
In the last of 18 th century Paolo, the forefather, settled from Calabria to Palermo and opened a spice shop. Businesses take off thanks also to the strategic position near the port, in the heart of Palermo. He lays the foundation of an economic empire. In 1807 he died leaving his assets into the hands of his brother Ignazio.
Paolo Florio 1772-1807 It all began in the last years of the 18th century, when Paolo Florio left Bagnara Calabria and settled with his commercial activity in Palermo. Together with his brother-in-law he opens a spice shop in via dei Materassai, but the company soon breaks up. Paolo is left alone to manage the shop and business takes off. The place is in the perfect location: near the port, in the heart of the Palermo of merchants. Florio buys and sells everything, supplies came from all over the world. Within a few years he is an established wholesaler, who supplies a vast clientele of merchants, not only Sicilians. The increased availability of money allows him to establish himself also in the financial field with capital interventions and merchant loans from other sectors. The well-being of the family never leads to luxury under the careful guidance of the one who laid the foundations of an empire destined to reach far other peaks. In 1807, Paolo Florio died at the age of 35, leaving his son Vincenzo, who was only 8 years old, as his heir.
Ignazio Florio 1776-1828 He led the family business with great ability, educating his nephew Vincenzo and continuing business with the family name of ”Vincenzo and Ignazio Florio”.
Ignazio Florio Bagnara Calabria 1776 - Palermo 1828 Ignazio led the family business with great ability, being the first one to understand the advantages of expanding economic interests beyond the grocery sector. As he approaches the tuna sector, he instructs his nephew Vincenzo to start him on the family business. It is no coincidence that he will give his son the name of the one who fathered him: Uncle Ignazio. He deserves the credit for having founded a family ethic that will be clear, rooted into the attachment to the name and careful management of the assets. In his last will he will ask for the activity to continue with the same name: "Ignazio and Vincenzo Florio". And those names will accompany the house for more than a century. A mystical respect will be paid to them in a city where many owed the Florio family the opportunity to bring bread home.
Vincenzo Florio The founder He received an excellent education, under the guidance of his uncle Ignazio, he learned art and the practice of business. He pioneered in tuna fishing and its canned preparation in Favignana and Palermo. Historians attribute to Vincenzo Florio the introduction of the system of fishing with fixed nets and conservation under oil, thus increasing his trade and financial wealth. In 1832 he established a factory of wine (Cantina Florio) in Marsala. Florio became the first Italian producer of Marsala wine. He built splendid cellars in the town's tuff rock to produce and conserve the wine. He died in 1868 leaving an immense patrimony.
Ignazio Florio: the consolidator 1838-1891 His father left him heir to all his assets that he expanded. With Ignazio the story of the family Florio intersects with the story of Sicily with the events of the Risorgimento and the Unity of Italy. From 1883 he was Senator of the kingdom of Italy. He died in 1891, at the age of 53, leaving three children, the eldest was Ignazio junior who succeeded him at the helm of the company at the age of 22 years old.
Ignazio Florio Junior 1869-1957 The last Florio heir at the helm of the family business was unlucky as he lost three of his five children, including his only son. He married the beautiful Franca and for his unlucky investments and dissolute life-style consumed all his patrimony. The best expression that defines him is “the promoter of the city's image and in this contest his wife played an important role in the Sicilian aristocracy.
Due to unbridled luxury and a series of bad investments, jointly with the national policy of the Savoy state, which abandoned the South to itself, in order to invest in infrastructure for the industrialization of the North, a heritage that seemed inexhaustible was consumed. Ignazio Junior, aware of his economic strength and supported by his studies, thought he could not be outdone by his predecessors, therefore, he started giving importance increasingly to appearance, power, pomp, believing it was the style of life for a man of his own rank, in that atmosphere of decadence under the suggestions of the Nietzschean myth of the “Superman”. His signature accompanies the most important entrepreneurial initiatives of those years: the establishment of the Anglo-Sicilian company for sulfur, the Sicilian Agricultural Consortium, the construction of the new Naval Yards; Florio will also become the financier of cultural and charitable initiatives: the theatre manager of the Massimo and Politeama theaters, the patron of the Institute of the Blind, the sponsor of the newspaper "L'Ora", the construction of Villa Igiea, designed firstly as a sanatorium, imposing as a “promoter” of his city. And in this role, his wife Franca played a fundamental part. Endowed with beauty and an irresistible charms she attracted the most refined artistic spirits of the time: D'Annunzio, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Caruso, De Maria Bergler. The painter Giovanni Boldini immortalized her figure in a famous painting that the artist had to modify because her husband considered it too sensual.
Vincenzo Florio Junior 1883-1959 .
His interest in the sports, and in particular in motor racing, marked his life. Anticipating the Manifesto of Futurism by F.T. Marinetti, Florio interpreted the modernist stances that praised the automobile, in the most creative ways, inventing the most exciting and innovative concept that could be imagined: the legendary Targa Florio. At the National exhibition of 1991, he organized the first championship that became an important cultural social event for Sicily. Thanks to the Targa Florio, Vincenzo managed to bring Sicily to the international limelight on the one hand and on the other hand to fuel the myth of the Florio family: a myth that now finds no other road than to surrender to history.
Villa Igiea Villa Igiea was inaugurated in 1900. From the very beginning it was a loved place symbol of the glory of the Florio dynasty and frequented by the high Sicilian aristocracy of the time. The "bourgeois palace" residence in Sicily is considered as the last glimpse of the Belle Époque. In the 1930s, Villa Igiea was managed by the Società Grandi Alberghi Siciliani and it is still visited and admired today for its elegant and imposing architecture.
Palazzina dei Quattro Pizzi, Casa Florio The Palazzina dei Quattro Pizzi, located in the Arenella district of Palermo, in the area of the former Tonnara Florio, became the private home of Vincenzo Florio who retired there with his family. At the time it hosted the Bourbon kings and the Tsar Nicholas I of Russia. Giachery, an Italian architect, designed the building in 1844, on the south eastern corner of the tonnara, in neo-Gothic style. It is rectangular in shape, with four characteristic cuspid corner turrets. Until 2016 the building was owned by the heirs of the Florio family.
FRANCA FLORIO Italian noblewoman and a prominent protagonist of the Belle Époque
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Francesca Paola Jacona della Motta was born in Palermo on 27th December 1873. She belonged to an impoverished family of the Sicilian high aristocracy. After her marriage with Ignazio Florio Jr., Donna Franca became a prominent figure of the European social life. Franca Florio also met the German Emperor Wilhelm II, who became one of her most prestigious admirers. He nicknamed Donna Franca with the appellation of "Star of Italy" due to her beauty. Donna Franca was also an art patron. She was a friend of the Italian writer and poet Gabriele D'Annunzio,a leading figure of the Decadent movement in Italy, who described her as "A unique woman. A creature whose every movement possesses a divine rhythm". She died on 10 November 1950 and was buried in the Cemetery of Santa Maria di Gesù, Palermo.
The role of Franca Florio in the cultural life Remembering Franca Florio only for its extraordinary beauty would be wrong. She was one of the most important exponents of the Sicilian Belle Epoque, in the years from the late nineteenth to the early decades of the twentieth century. In the rise of Casa Florio she played a role of great importance and offered an irreplaceable support for the entrepreneurial activities of her husband, Ignazio Florio. The leading figure of the greatest dynasty of all times, in Sicily. Franca Florio's life was so full of events, joys and sorrows, splendor and misery, comparable to an appendix novel.
She was celebrated by poets and musicians, writers and artists who immortalized her in their portraits and by Augustus Canonia, who portrayed it in a beautiful marble bust. They called it Unique and also the Queen of Palermo. The figure of Donna Franca cannot ignore the context of Casa Florio, of which it was an integral part, from the many worldly, cultural and sporting initiatives due to the genius and patronage of his husband Ignazio. Among the others the construction of the prestigious hotel «Villa Igiea» which hosted the international nobility of the time and the Massimo Theatre, symbol of Palermo’s magnificent splendour of the epoque.
Cultural depiction The famous Giovanni Boldini's "Portrait of Franca Florio" was commissioned by Ignazio Florio. Boldini’s initial, beautifully provocative version, painted in 1901 was not approved by Ignazio Florio, who demanded the painter to lengthen the dress and add full sleeves with wide black lace. The painting was exhibited at the 1903 Venice Biennial. After, the painting has been on display at the Grand Hotel Villa Igiea in Palermo since 2006. In 2017 it went to auction. It is said that the necklace in the painting, with 365 pearls, one for each day of the year, was a present from her husband, begging forgiveness for his many love affairs outside marriage.
Liliana Segre Liliana Segre has become a symbol in Italy. In a country that consciously and subconsciously separates its early fascist decades from the genocidal turn that Fascism took once it allied itself with Nazism, she is the country’s conscience, a constant reminder of what can happen under dictatorial regimes.
Liliana’s life began to change in 1938 When she was just eight years old. Under the rule of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, Italy passed its notorious Racial Laws. These discriminated against Italian Jews, imposing severe restrictions on what they could do and the jobs they could hold. That was the year Liliana was expelled from school; the year she first realized she was Jewish. Her family had been secular and it was only when she was no longer allowed to be with her classmates that she understood she was seen as “different”
The arrest On December 8, 1943, Liliana and her father tried to seek asylum in Switzerland but were turned away at the border and promptly arrested. Their attempted escape had come too late. Under Nazi occupation, and with the help of Mussolini’s fascists, the arrest and deportation of Italian Jews to the death camps in Northern Europe had begun. Of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, 8,000 came from Italy
The deportation After being imprisoned for 40 days in the San Vittore jail in Milan, the young girl found herself being pushed onto a train carriage. The train was departing from a well-hidden underground platform meant for goods and livestock. Platform 21 at Milan Central Station is now the site of the city’s Holocaust Memorial.
It was January 30, 1944, and their destination was the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. Liliana was separated from her father on arrival. She never saw him again. Alberto Segre was murdered in Auschwitz on April 27, 1944. She was forced to work in a munitions factory while in the camp – work that, by sparing her from hard labour in freezing conditions outside, would prove vital to her survival.
The «Death March» and the end of the War
On January 20, 1945, as the Soviet army closed in on the camp, Liliana and nearly 60,000 other Auschwitz prisoners were forced on a “death march” to various other camps inside Germany. The Nazis wanted to leave no witnesses to their crimes.
They walked hundreds of kilometres to the north of Germany, eventually reaching Ravensbruck, a concentration camp that was, by this time, serving as a transit camp. They stayed there for two weeks. From there, Liliana moved on to two other camps, the last of which was Malchow. It had become clear that Germany was losing the war. When she left Malchow, Liliana walked for two days. She had no idea where she was. But on May 1, 1945, she saw US troops on the road she was travelling on.
The Postwar Period For a long time, Segre never wanted to speak publicly about her experience in concentration camps. Like many Holocaust children, returning home and to a "normal" life was far from easy. Liliana Segre also remembers that she did not find in those years any ear willing to listen to her: “It was very difficult for my relatives to live with a wounded animal like I was: A little girl who came back from hell, from whom obedience and resignation was demanded. Soon I learned to keep my tragic memories and deep sadness to myself. Nobody understood me, I was the one who had to adapt myself to a world that wanted to forget the painful events that had just past, that wanted to start again, eager for fun and carefree.”
After decades of silence, in the 1990s she started to speak to the public about her experience She started touring schools to share her eyewitness account of the Holocaust,
She contributed to the making of many films, books and documentaries and she also awarded four honorary degrees (Law, Pedagogy and International Relations, Peace and conflict studies)
Her impact over the years has been so great that in January 2018 she was made a Senator for Life in the Italian parliament.
On 29 January 2020, invited by President David Sassoli for the International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, she spoke before the European Parliament, where she received an ovation by the full assembly.
On 18 February 2020, during the Sapienza University of Rome academic year inauguration, also attended by President Sergio Mattarella, she was awarded a PhD honoris causa in European History, which she dedicated to her father Alberto, "killed for the guilt of being born (Jewish)"
On 9 October 2020, after 30 years of public witnesses about her life, she gave her last public speech, where she invited the young not to blame others for their own failures and weakness, because they are very strong.
Maria Montessori
Who is Maria Montessori? Maria Montessori was born in 1870 and died in 1952. She was an Italian educator, pedagogist, philosopher, child neuropsychiatrist and scientist. She is internationally known for the educational method that takes her name, adopted in thousands of kindergartens, elementary, middle and high schools around the world.
A little more about her story From her early years, Montessori showed an interest in scientific subjects. She enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine of "La Sapienza" University of Rome. After completing her studies, she started working at the psychiatric clinic of the University, dedicating herself to the recovery of children with mental problems, at the time defined as “ abnormal”. Her work led her to come into contact with the scientific circles of the United Kingdom and France. It contributed to her commitment to female emancipation. She attended the Berlin Women's Congress in 1896 as a representative of Italy fostering the theme of equal right. She also attended the London Women's Congress.
Based on her observations, Montessori implemented a number of practices that became hallmarks of her educational philosophy and method. She replaced the heavy furniture with childsized materials. She expanded the range of practical activities to include a wide variety of exercises for the care of the environment and the self, including flower arranging, handwashing, gymnastics, care of pets, and cooking. Montessori was directly involved in the development of the UNESCO Institute for Education in 1951. Her educational method is in use today in many public and private schools globally and it is universally acclaimed.
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Renzo Piano was born and raised in Genoa, Italy on September 14, 1937 He studied architecture at the Milan Polytechnic University and graduated in 1964 He completed his first building in 1968 (the IPE factory in Genoa) In 1970, Piano received his first international commission, for the Pavilion of Italian Industry for Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan In 1998, he won the Pritzker Prize, often considered the Nobel Prize of architecture In 2006, Piano was selected by TIME as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In August 2013, he was appointed Senator for Life in the Italian Senate by President Giorgio Napolitano Overall, he has won 15 awards
Further information about his carreer Renowned architect Renzo Piano has won many architecture awards, most notably the Pritzker Prize, the AIA Gold Medal, and the Sonning Prize. The Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW), based in Genoa, Paris, and New York, employs more than a hundred architects, engineers, and building specialists. Working with this exceptional team, Renzo Piano has actualized famous worldwide designs as The Shard in London—Europe’s tallest building—and as varied as department stores, churches, factories, housing, university buildings, stadium, a winery, bridges—and even a Swatch watch. Renzo Piano, the 1998 Pritzker Prize winner, is perhaps best known for his controversial design of the Centre Georges Pompidou, located in the heart of Paris and completed in 1978.
Special Awards
Renzo Piano, the acclaimed Italian architect, received a Lifetime Achievement Award on 18 June during a digital marathon by Rome's MAXXI National Museum of the 21st Century Arts. The international jury awarded him for his the professional and civil commitment that has marked and continues to mark Piano's architectural production and his tireless engagement in promoting the quality and public value of architecture in a sustainable world.
San Giorgio Bridge (GE) More recently Piano designed the new bridge for his home town Genoa, free of charge, to replace the Morandi bridge which collapsed on 14 August 2018 leading to the deaths of 43 people. Considered Italy's greatest living architect, Piano was named a senator for life in 2013 by then Italian president Giorgio Napolitano.
Centre RIMED Carini
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Renzo Piano has also designed the project of a centre of excellence in the field of scientific reasearch in the sector of biotecnology and medicine, to be built in territory of Carini.
Some of His Famous Buildings
The Shard
The New York Times Building
Kansai International Airport
Some of His Famous Buildings
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Parliament House (Malta)
Zentrum Paul Klee
Maison Hermès
“One of the great beauties of architecture is that each time it is like life starting all over again.” -Renzo Piano
Women in science Rita Levi montaLcini (1909-2012)
Rita Levi Montalcini (Turin, April 22,1909-Rome, December 30, 2012), belonging to an Italian Jewish family, was a neurologist, an academic and a senator for life. In the fifties, with her research, she discovered and illustrated the growth of the nerve fiber, known as NGF ( Nerve Growth Factor).This discovery made her award the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986. During her lifetime, she was awarded of other prizes, but,above all, she was the first woman to be admitted to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences.
The role of women
Traditionally, men were considered the head of the family, while women were generally confined to roles in the house. So, her parents were staunchly against the possibility she attended university, as it would interfere with the primary roles as wife and mother. But at age 20, Levi-Montalcini decided that she wanted a different life from that one imagined for her by her father; specifically, she wanted to go to medical school and study to be a doctor. Rita Levi-Montalcini had an incredible career, and NGF is only part of the story. She was an outspoken advocate for scientific funding and for women in science.
“My experience in childhood and adolescence of the subordinate role played by the female in a society run entirely by men, had convinced me that I was not cut out to be a wife” ( Rita Levi Montalcini).
Levi-Montalcini graduated summa cum laude from the Turin School of Medicine in 1936 and began a three-year fellowship in neurology and psychiatry, while continuing her research on the development of nerve cells; In 1939, after the racial Laws, she made the difficult decision to end her work at the University of Turin, continuing her research in Belgium, where she had received an invitation to perform research at a neurological Institute; however, she returned home to Turin in early 1940, setting up a small laboratory in her bedroom to keep studying neurogenesis in the chick embryo. During this time, Professor Hamburger took a great interest in LeviMontalcini’s work, and asked her to visit his lab at Washington University in St. Louis, MO, where she spent 30 years, cooperating with the talented young biochemist, Stanley Cohen,becoming a Full Professor in 1958, and holding this position until her retirement in 1977.
Italy made Levi-Montalcini a Senator for life in 2001 by the President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi «for having representing the homeland with very high merits in the scientific and social field». She was a national member of the Accademia dei Lincei for the physical sciences class and a founding member of the Idis- Città della ScienzaFoundation; Rita Levi-Montalcini was one of the greatest scientific minds of the 20th century. She fought through deeply entrenched sexism and the staggering anti-Semitism of WWII to do what she loved most.
She was appointed senator for life by the president of the republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, on August 1st 2001. Rita Levi-Montalcini died at the age of 103, on 30 December 2012 in Rome.
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ALUNNI ISTITUTO UGO MURSIA CARINI A.S 2021.22
Voievodul Mircea High School Târgoviște, Romania
Romanian famous people
ANA ASLAN January 1st, 1897 – May 20th 1988 A pioneer of social medicine
She was a Romanian biologist and physician, she founded the Institute of Geriatrics of Bucharest
ANA ASLAN - She attended the Faculty of Medicine from 1915 to 1922; - She obtained her M.D. degree in cardiovascular physiology in 1924. Her focus was on physiology and the process of aging. - After three-year study has inventing a drug called Gerovital (H3), it promised to slow down the aging process by about 40%. - she founded first in the world Institute of Geriatrics. - Ana Aslan received many international distinctions, like ”Cross of Merit" – First Class of the Order of Merit, Germany
Ana Aslan
Ana Aslan
Gerovital H3
In Institute of Geriatry
CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI February 19th , 1876 - March 19th , 1957
The sculptor of the Romanian soul
He was a Romanian sculptor famous all over the world for his masterpieces. He mostly sculptured his creations in France.
CONSTANTIN BRÂNCUȘI Main achievements: - Post-mortem member of The Romanian Academy. - He implemented the modern concept of painting, drawing and in sculpture. - Some of the artistic movements he supported were modernism, artistic youth and catalan modernism. Creations: Endless Column, Table of Silence, Kissing Gate, Sleeping Muse, Master Bird, Child’s Face, The goodness of the earth.
”Mademoiselle Pogany”
”The Kissing Gate” ”Endless Column”
”Table of Silence”
GEORGE ENESCU August 19th, 1881 - May 4th, 1955 The titan of Romanian music
Romanian composer, violinist, conductor and teacher. Regarded as one of the greatest musicians in Romanian history.
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GEORGE ENESCU - Enescu was born in Romania, in the village of Liveni (later renamed "George Enescu" in his honor), in Botoșani County; - Considered to be a wonder-child, on 5 October 1888, at the age of seven, he became the youngest student ever admitted to the Vienna Conservatory; - Many of Enescu's works were influenced by Romanian folk music, his most popular compositions being the two Romanian Rhapsodies (1901–02), the opera Œdipe (1936), and the suites for orchestra. - The George Enescu Festival held in honor of Enescu, is the biggest classical music festival held in Romania ( from 1958 was 25 editions).
Children Enescu
”Oedipe” by Enescu at the Opéra de Paris
Enescu in Paris
Romanian Rhapsody partiture
Enescu and his violin
MIRCEA ”THE ELDER” BASARAB 1355 – 1418 The Voivode of Wallachia from 1386 until his death in 1418.
He was the most important Wallachian ruler during the Middle Ages, during his reign Wallachia controlled the largest area in its history.
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MIRCEA ”THE ELDER” BASARAB Mircea the Elder was born in 1355 and he died in January 31 1418 at the age of 62-63 years old. Mircea was the son of voivode Radu I of Wallachia, this being a descendant of the House of Basarab. On October 10, 1394, the ottoman armies leaded by Sultan Beyazid I, was defetead in the Battle of Rovine and Mircea threw the Ottomans out of the country; Our high school was named after this famous ruler and we have a statue in his memory in the high school yard, and one in the center of the city.
Cozia Monastery, erected close to Călimănești by Mircea the Elder in 1388 and housing his tomb.
Mircea Voivode statue from Târgoviște center
Wallachians in the Battle of Rovine
Mircea Voivode statue from our school park
MIRCEA ELIADE March 13th , 1907 – April 22th , 1986 One of the world’s foremost interpreters of religious symbolism and myth.
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He was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago, one of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century.
MIRCEA ELIADE Eliade had fluent command of five languages (Romanian, French, German, Italian, and English) and a reading knowledge of three others (Hebrew, Persian, and Sanskrit) 1933: PhD with a thesis on Yoga practices. 1956: became one of the founders of ”Chicago school” that defined the study of religions for the second half of the 20th century. 1966: member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 1977: awarded the Bordin prize by the French Academy 1985: received the title of ”Doctor Honoris Causa” by George Washington University
Mircea Eliade and Maitreyi Devi – the story of an unfulfilled love
photo of the main work
Eliade, Ionesco and Cioran
Eliade in Chicago
Eliade in 1933
NADIA COMĂNECI Born: November 12th, 1961 (age 60 years) Onești, Romania
Romanian (former) gymnast
Flying!
Main achievements: - nine-time Olympic medalist
- the first gymnast to be awarded a perfect score of 10.0 at the Olympic Games (1976) - the youngest all-around Olympic gold medalist
ever.
Nadia Comăneci
Uneven bars
Floor
Balance beam
NICOLAE GRIGORESCU May,15th, 1838 – July, 21th, 1907
Art of painting
He was the greatest artist in Romania and he is the first of the founders of modern Romanian painting.
NICOLAE GRIGORESCU 1861: -he painted the Agapia Monastery - he started studying at the École des beaux-arts, Paris; 1867: seven of his works were part of the Universal Exposition of Paris; 1877: he became a ”frontline painter” in the Romanian War of Independence; 1899: he became member of the Romanian Academy;
”Dorobanțul”
“The ox cart”
”Cheerful Peasant Woman”
”The trumpetist”
“The peasant woman of Muscel”
MARIA, QUEEN OF ROMANIA October 29th, 1875 - July 18th, 1938
The queen who carried her country in her soul and made her beauty known in the world
She fought like a soldier. She loved. She protected her country.
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MARIE, QUEEN OF ROMANIA - She worked as a nurse during three epidemics and two wars. - It was at this moment that Queen Marie gained great respect in the Romanian society, and she came to see her first encounter with an epidemic as a turning point in her life. - Queen Marie’s poetry-filled illuminated books were much admired in that era. While she used to gift most of them to friends and relatives, some of them ended up being presented at important expositions
She was an awardwinning visual artist.
Queen Marie
TRAIAN VUIA August, 17th, 1872 – September, 3th, 1950
Romanian inventor and aviation pioneer
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Traian Vuia was an inventor, pioneer of world aviation. Although he studied for a year at the Polytechnic, he graduated from Law school. He obtained his doctorate in Legal Sciences.
TRAIAN VUIA At the age of ten he developed a passion for kites, in high school he wanted to handle kites and after graduating from college he built his own aircraft. Traian Vuia made one of the first selfpropelled flights with a heavier-than-air aircraft. Vuia's machine had the capability to take off from a flat surface, without assistance such as an incline, rails, or catapult.
”Vuia II aircraft”
The first flight
Traian Vuia ”Vuia I aircraft”
VIRGINIA ANDREESCU HARET June, 21th , 1894 – May, 6th , 1962
The First Romanian Woman-Architect
The first female architect, Virginia Andreescu Haret, who entered through the "big door", in the art of building, in 1919.
VIRGINIA ANDREESCU HARET The first woman to graduate with a degree in architecture in Romania around 150 buildings designed and built 40 years of activity and a life devoted entirely to art; She built many projects including the Gheorghe Şincai High School, the Govora Casino (1928-1929), as well as many private homes monuments and public and private buildings (like our building – ”Voievodul Mircea” High School). photo
Govora Casino
”Voievodul Mircea” High School ”Col. Cezar Golici Villa” ”Nicu Stănescu Villa”
Voievodul Mircea Highschool ERASMUS+
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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk He was born in Salonica in 1881. He fought as a Commander on many war fronts in the Ottoman Empire. On May 19.1919, he laid the foundations of the new Turkish Republic. He fought for freedom with the Turkish people. As a result of this struggle, he established the Independent Republic of Turkey. He made many revolutions in order to bring the new Turkish state to the level of modern civilizations. When he died on November 10, 1938, he entrusted the modern Turkish state to us Turkish youth.
İbni Sina (Avicenn, as the Westerners say) He was born in 980 in Bukhara (in today's Uzbekistan). He wrote more than 200 books in the field of Medicine and Philosophy. He is considered the father of early medicine in the history of medicine. He became famous with his book called El-Kanun fi't-Tıb (The Law of Medicine), and this book was taught as a basic work in medical science in European universities until the middle of the 17th century. Hamedan (in present-day Iran) died in 1037.
Cavit ARF (Famous Turkish Mathematician) He was born on 11 October 1910 in Salonica. His interest in mathematics was discovered by his teachers at a young age. In addition to the studies mentioned by his name in the literature, such as Arf invariant and Arf rings about the invariants that emerge in the classification of the quadratic forms of objects, he introduced the theorem called “Hasse-Arf Theorem” to the science of mathematics. Terms such as “Arf Constant” and “Arf Closures” gained in the world. He died on December 26, 1997 in Istanbul.
Gazi Yaşargil He was born on 6 July 1925 in Diyarbakır. He is a Turkish scientist and medical doctor. He is a neurosurgeon specialist. He is known for his contributions to the practice and dissemination of the use of microscopes (microsurgery) in neurosurgery practice. Thanks to his contributions, he has the title of "Neurosurgeon of the Century". used the high-frequency coagulation technique (to stop bleeding) for the first time, and this technique later became widespread in surgical practice. He is now 96 years old and lives in Istanbul.
Aziz Sancar He was born in Mardin on September 8, 1946. He is a Turkish doctor, academician, biochemist, molecular biologist and scientist. He won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2015 for his work. He is best known for pioneering biochemical approaches used in the identification of many parts of DNA repair over the past 20 years. He is currently 75 years old and continues his scientific studies in Ankara.
Cezeri He was born in 1136 in Cizre. He is Scientist, inventor and engineer. It is thought that Cezerî, who took the first steps in cybernetics and made and operated the first robot, was an inspiration to the famous artist Leonardo da Vinci. Cezeri, who has a very important place in the world literature in the field of cybernetics, described about 50 mechanical devices and instructions on how to build them. Among these, he is mostly known for his invention of the "elephant water clock".
Mimar Sinan He was born in Kayseri in 1489. He built 375 great works in the Ottoman Empire. Most of these works are still standing today. His works are not only in Anatolia, but also in the Balkans and Egypt. His greatest work is the Selimiye Mosque in Edirne, which he called his masterpiece, and completed at the age of 86, which is on the World Cultural Heritage List. He died in Istanbul in 1588.
Hulisi Behçet Turkish dermatologist and scientist, born on February 20, 1889 in Istanbul. In 1937, he became the first scientist to describe Behçet's disease, which is a disease of blood vessel inflammation that is named after him today. Behçet's disease was introduced into the medical literature by Hulusi Behçet. He died on March 8, 1948 in Istanbul.
Zülfü Livaneli Born on June 20, 1946 in Konya, he is a Turkish musician, screenwriter, politician, writer and film director. He received many national and international awards for his music and his works were interpreted by artists such as John Baez and Maria Farandouri. His interest in cinema started with making original film scores. He wrote storybooks. He also played an active role in Turkish political life. He lives in Istanbul and writes new novels.
Uğur Şahin - Özlem Türeci Uğur Şahin was born in 1965 in Hatay, Özlem Türeci was born in Germany in 1967. They are the founder of the biotech company Biontech. They are the scientists who developed the first vaccine for Corona, which is considered the plague of our time, and spread it to the world. They are still continuing their laboratory studies to develop different Biontech vaccines and to find new vaccines for different diseases.
My Welsh hero is Frances Hogan, a doctor from Brecon who was barred from sitting the exams to become a doctor in Britain due to her sex, and travelled to Zurich to study medicine.
She became the first British woman to receive a doctorate in medicine from any university in Europe. She was also the first female doctor to be registered in Britain. If that wasn’t enough Frances also tirelessly campaigned to promote sanitary education, the suffrage movement, female education and civil rights activism in the US. What a woman!
“The time has almost passed away for sneering at girls desiring the advantage of higher education; and I am sure all, who know Wales and the Welsh could point to more than one girl, no less promising than her clever brother.” ~ at the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff ,1883.
Gwenllian The Warrior Princess
Grace Rogers
My Welsh hero is Gwenllian because she fought bravely to defend her country. Many people will have heard of the legendary Joan of Arc and of Boudica, famous women warriors who fought for their country, but not unfortunately the tale of Gwenllian, Daughter of Gruffydd. It is said that Gwenllian is essentially Wales’ Joan of Arc, because she did not conform to the traditional gender roles of the time but instead fought for her people and her country. In the 1100s, Gwenllian fought bravely against Nordic invasion and fought to keep her country safe against any invasions or conflict, even while 8 months pregnant.
Betsi Cadwaladr was born in North Wales on the 24th of May 1789. She started off as a maid, but that didn’t make her happy so she escaped out of the window using only tied sheets, and ran away. She wanted to become a nurse, but she didn’t get the job so she became a maid on a ship and explored the world. At the age of 65 she joined a military nursing service. Conditions in the Crimea eventually took their toll on Cadwaladr's health, as she was ill with cholera and dysentery when she returned to Britain in 1855, a year before the war ended. She lived in London, again at her sister's house, during which time she wrote her autobiography. She died in 1860, five years after her return, and was buried in the pauper's section of Abney Park Cemetery in north London. A new memorial stone was placed on her grave in August 2012. The North East Wales Health Board is named after Betsi Cadwaladr. Towards the end of her life – in her mid-60s – she worked alongside Florence Nightingale, nursing casualties of the Crimean war.
Roald Dahl Roald Dahl was born in 1916 in Llandaff, Wales. He grew up in his birthplace with his parents (Harald and Sofie Magdalene Dahl who were Norwegian immigrants) and siblings (Astri Dahl, Else Dahl, Alfhild Dahl, Asta Dahl and Louis Dahl).
He was a wartime fighter pilot who served in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War. It was in November 1939 that Roald decided to enlist in the Royal Air Force, at 23 years old. But in 1946, due to terrible injuries, he could no longer fly planes - this caused him to leave the RAF. Dahl’s biggest passion was always writing, and he proved that it is never too late to discover your talent as he didn’t start writing books until he was in his forties. He was a British author who sold more than 250 million copies of his books worldwide. In his books, Roald Dahl has invented over 500 new words- extending our vocabulary. Some of his popular books are ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘Matilda’ and ‘The Witches’. All of his books were inspired by the people and things around him. Roald Dahl is my hero, because he has inspired and encouraged many people worldwide to enjoy reading and writing, stood up for his beliefs and reminded us not to take life too seriously and to always do our best “If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it at full speed ahead. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it, and above all become passionate about it”.
Santes Dwynwen Santes Dwynwen was a fourth-century Welsh princess who lived in what is now the Brecon Beacons National Park. Dwynwen was rather unlucky in love, so she became a nun. She prayed for true lovers to have better luck than she did. God then granted Dwynwen three wishes. Her first wish was that Maelon be thawed, her second wish was for God to help all true lovers, her third wish was that she would never marry. Dydd Santes Dwynwen is considered to be the Welsh equivalent to Valentine's Day and is celebrated on 25 January. It celebrates Dwynwen, the Welsh saint of lovers. Santes Dwynwen is our hero because she shows to make choices for yourself to make you happy and not make other people happy before yourself, also to be yourself and not what other people expect.
Aneurin Bevan Aneurin Bevan’s goal was to win free health care services for everyone in Britain no matter their wealth or poverty! And this is why he’s my hero... Aneurin Bevan was born on 15 November 1897 in Tredegar in Wales. His father was a miner and the poor working class family in which Bevan grew up gave him first-hand experience of the problems of poverty and disease. Bevan left school at 13 and began working in a local colliery. He became a trades union activist and won a scholarship to study in London. It was during this period that he became convinced by the ideas of socialism. During the 1926 General Strike, Bevan emerged as one of the leaders of the South Wales miners. During World War Two, Bevan was one of the leaders of the left in the House of Commons. After the landslide Labour victory in the 1945 general election, Bevan was appointed minister of health, responsible for establishing the National Health Service. On 5 July 1948, the government took over responsibility for all medical services and there was free diagnosis and treatment for all. The NHS has been our heroes during the coronavirus pandemic. Without Aneurin Bevan it would’ve been impossible!
My Welsh hero has to be Tom Jones, a very famous singer in South Wales. Sir Thomas John Woodward was born on the seventh of June 1940 in Pontypridd South Wales, which is about a twenty minute drive from my house! His professional name is Tom Jones, which he took on at the beginning of his career. He has toured regularly, with appearances in Las Vegas and he’s often described as “full-throated, robust baritone”. His songs come under a variety of ranges including pop, R&B, country, soul and gospel and he has sold over 100 million records and has achieved 36 Top 40 hits in the UK and 19 in the US. Tom has amassed so many awards during his impressive 50 year career and among them are a Grammy award in 1965 for Best New Artist and 2003’s Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. As well as this, he has his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He also sung the theme tune for the James Bond film Thunderball in 1965. Tom Jones is my hero because he is proud of his roots and has helped Wales to be known as our own country. As well as this, Tom plays a big role in raising money for different charities such as “Cancer Research UK”.
Owain Glyndwr 1359 - 1415 My hero is Owain Glyndwr, I have chosen him as a result of being very inspired by his determination and passion to fight for the Welsh at all costs. Owain Glyndwr was the last native Welsh person to hold the title Prince of Wales. Owain Glyndwr is my hero as he was a Welsh leader who instigated a fierce and long-running war of independence with the aim of ending English rule in Wales during the Late Middle Ages. He fought for our country taking over 10,000 Welsh men into battle with 2,500 members of the French forces joining later on in the year. The war started as a result of the English taking over Wales, evicting people from their homes, giving the English people their jobs and watching every movement the Welsh made by having the English army watching from the numerous Welsh castles all around Wales. Owain was not happy with how the Welsh were being treated so he took his men to fight back for his land. On 16 September 1400, Owain Glyndŵr instigated a 15-year Welsh Revolt against the rule of King Henry IV of England. With the use of guerilla tactics the Welsh troops managed to inflict a series of defeats on the English forces and captured key castles across Wales, rapidly gaining control of most of the country. His determination to not give up and fight for the full 15 years shows how passionate he was about the Welsh and that’s why he is my hero.
Aaron Ramsey & Natasha Harding
Aaron Ramsey and Natasha Harding are both expupils of Cwm Rhymni who are international footballers representing Wales. Aaron has played for clubs such as Arsenal and Juventus and Natasha has played for Manchester City and Reading. They are both proud of the Welsh language.