The Protestant Cultural Center is located in Via Tasso, Lower Bergamo, not far from the Palazzo della Provincia, and is managed by the Waldensian Cultural Center Foundation.
The location is not accidental: during the Renaissance, the neighborhood that developed around the street had the highest concentration of Swiss Protestants in the city.
Many of the palaces that still adorn it today were commissioned by those very families, who became rich through trade.
The Center is located inside number 55.
After passing through the entrance portal, continue inside the portico to the inner courtyard-enclosed between the walls of the old Zavaritt building and columns with round arches-to find the entrance on the right.
Also housed inside the building is the Girolamo Zanchi Library, which holds more than 5,000 volumes and the documentary archive of the Waldensian Community, with writings dating from 1805 to the present.
Established by the Evangelical Christian Community of Bergamo in 1990, the Center aims to respond to the need to make Protestant culture more accessible and to be its place of confrontation with current culture (in scientific, ethical, political, and social fields).
Despite its close connection with the Reformed religion, however, it stands as a free, open and secular space where all are welcome.
According to its founding statute, it is “a secular and nondenominational association that aims to foster knowledge and study of the religious, civil and social thought and history of Protestantism, according to a perspective that does not neglect the current debate.”
The Center organizes annual meetings and conferences on the topic of Protestantism, its origins and developments in Bergamo, paying particular attention to the Waldensian branch.
Cultural offerings also include educational tours, exhibitions and docu-film screenings.
Of great resonance were the celebrations for the five-hundredth anniversary of the Protestant Reformation (2017), which involved both institutions and the people of Bergamo.