On the second day of the second edition of the Summer School "Meditherity: mobility and heritage in the Mediterranean", which takes place in Lampedusa, several vibrant themes emerged; one of the main issues addressed was that of coexistence.
Professor Albera who led the first lesson of the Summer School proposed a reflection on shared sacred spaces as places of connectivity and fragmentation.
The paradigmatic case of Lampedusa was located in the largest area of the Mediterranean, reminding us that "Lampedusa is not alone", thus classifying itself as neither an isolated case nor an exceptional one.
In fact, since the Neolithic Lampedusa has historically been at the center of trade, crossings, exchanges and flows that have determined its current social and ecological configuration.
This complexity is found in the role played by the Sanctuary of the Madonna di Porto Salvo as a place of interreligious coexistence also dictated by the need to adapt to the various historical and social conditions.
This, like many other shared places, not only affects physical space, but also implies the circulation of ideas, concepts, objects, cults and experiences.
The history and myth that accompany the life of Andrea Anfossi - Ligurian sailor kidnapped by the Saracens, escaped their control and later miraculously returned to his native land - gives life to the cult of Our Lady of Lampedusa; it does not only imply a process of migration of the individual but also of the cult related to him.
Andrea Anfossi's experience exemplifies the past and recent history of the island characterized by various forms of circulation and migration (human, faunal, plants) that deny the rhetoric of exceptionality and of Lampedusa as a remote, desert and archaic place.
The Historical Archive of Lampedusa that we were able to visit with the guide of the co-founder Fabio Giovanetti is a precious and significant testimony of this.
Lampedusa is often narrated through the rhetoric of the emergency of migrants and also as a deserted and isolated place, even if in reality these descriptions are partial.
On the contrary, the island is configured as an animated, populated and vibrant place, stratified by multiple stories of ancient and contemporary populations that have given life to this synergy.
This complexity is also found in the richness of the ecological heritage of the island ecosystem which is continuously regenerated.