Manigunda, a “tourist guide” at the Monastery of Cairate

It is Manigunda who will accompany the next visitors to the Monastery of Cairate. Not the ghost that is said still to hover between those walls, but a virtual version, in an app created in a joint project of the Keynes Institute and an art high school in Varese.

In fact, the legendary Manigunda will guide children along a route reserved for them. The ghost will explain, in a simple manner, the wonders contained in the recently restored Monastery, which will soon open a new museum area ready for discovery.

 

The idea came from a group of students from high schools in the province, the Keynes High School in Gazzada Schianno, and the Frattini Art High School in Varese. The app for the Monastery of Cairate was presented on 16 December, in the Aula Magna of the Keynes School.

 

 

"The app is the result of work that began following a wish expressed by the Town Council of Cairate to promote and enhance this monument in a different and unusual way, and to start a collaboration with the local schools," said Pietro Fontana, the Councillor for Culture and Tourism in Cairate. "Producing the app provided a great opportunity to collaborate with the high schools, and for this reason, I’d like to thank Simona Gamberoni in particular, who coordinated the project, which has been completed in almost a year of practical school work, teachers at the Keynes High School and at the Frattini Art High School and, above all, the students, who really did a great job. I feel I should mention two in particular, Marco Speziali and Alessandro Maggio, the two "developers" who were always so accommodating and polite, as well as extremely qualified and competent."

 

The idea of the smartphone app, which came from the Keynes High School in Gazzada Schianno, involved the Frattini Art School in Varese for the graphics. The Frattini students took care of the logo and the graphical layout. The app will be available on iPhone and Android devices from the beginning of 2015, and is divided into visits: for Children (with the special guide, Manigunda), for the works of the Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Periods, and following the route of the historical sights. "The points of interest inside the Monastery will have texts that can be read and listened to as audio guides," said Marco, one of the student developers. In another section, the points of interest have also been gathered on a map outside the Monastery.

"Hotels, Restaurants, other places nearby to visit, and even the presence of the cycle path," another student involved explained.

"We put ourselves in the shoes of a tourist," the project coordinator Simona Gamberoni, a teacher at the Keynes, explained, "so we didn’t do a "copy-and-paste" of the existing panels, but tried to select the most important information, for four routes. It was important to work for a "real" client who had needs and objectives. It gets you accustomed to working differently from how you work at school." The presentation was attended by the Headmistress of the Keynes High School and by a teacher who represented the Art High School in Varese, Elena Ceci, as well as the students that took part in the project.