Open every day From November to March: 10 a.m. - 4.30 p.m. From April to October: 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.	!!! Attention: this exhibition is over. Christmas at the castle - CIRO Nativity Scenes from the Hartl collection From the 22nd of November 2008 until the 11th of January 2009 Open every day from 10 a.m. until 4.30 p.m. including Christmas and New Year's days The passion for Nativity Scenes is at the heart of a considerable collection gathered through the generations by the family Hartl from Munich. The castle of Gruyères presents one of the most surprising contemporary sections: around fifty “arte povera” Nativity Scenes by Roberto Cipollone (CIRO). Each one of the pieces on display is unique and reflects the personality of this outstanding Italian artist. Born in 1947 in Pescara, Roberto Cipollone lives and works in Loppiano near Florence. Perpetuating the tradition of the medieval workshop, he is the initiator of "La Bottega di CIRO" in 1982: a real laboratory dedicated to creativity and artistic exchange. In his works, CIRO harmonises in an original mode, the ways and customs of Abruzzo, his birth region, with the cultural richness of Tuscany and Umbria. He also finds a true inspiration in the “Poor Art” (arte povera) and the New Realism, artistic movement founded in the sixties. In fact, one of CIRO distinctive trademarks is his predilection for scrap materials. Composed that way, the Nativity Scenes are dense with questioning and symbolic. Developing a poetry of the everyday object, they interrogate us on reality and make us conscious of the hidden value of things. The sacred characters distinctive by their simplicity of expression and the grace of their shape, tell their little and humble stories and offer us a new light on the Christmas event. An afternoon of storytelling (French speaking) Sundays the 7th, 14th and 21st of December, at 3 p.m. Duration: 1 hour