{"id":16213,"date":"2024-03-29T09:23:58","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T07:23:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/zij-schreef-voor-het-lux-festival-de-levensverhalen-van-lucius-co\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T17:00:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T15:00:22","slug":"zij-schreef-voor-het-lux-festival-de-levensverhalen-van-lucius-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/zij-schreef-voor-het-lux-festival-de-levensverhalen-van-lucius-co\/","title":{"rendered":"She Wrote the Life Stories of Lucius & Co for the Lux Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":{"categorie":33,"afbeelding":10927,"auteur":"Harry Lindelauf","fotografie":"Anja Neskens en Submedia","contentbuilder":[{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst","tekst":"

The Lux Light Festival in December 2023 and January 2024 was a great success, drawing 2,604 visitors.\r\nThe main success factor turned out to be the stories of the characters about their lives in Roman times.\r\nThese stories were written by B\u00e9atrice de Fraiture \u2014 historically accurate, sometimes humorous, and always meaningful.<\/h2>"},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_foto","tekst":"In May 2023, archaeologist B\u00e9atrice de Fraiture from Maastricht was commissioned to write these life stories.\r\nShe began by studying the 36 individuals from the Roman era whose names are known and who lived in South Limburg.\r\nShe researched what is known about each person and whether they could be linked to archaeological sites. From this body of research, she selected eight unique individuals \u2014 Romans, Batavians, Germans, and Gauls \u2014 each with a fascinating story centred around a theme such as agriculture, religion, pottery, social life, or trade.\r\n\r\nIn addition to historical research, B\u00e9atrice consulted with municipalities about the theme each wanted to highlight, and whether they agreed with the character designed on the basis of both archaeological finds and that theme. \u201cWe agreed that we would build a bridge to the present. The municipalities could thus show what distinguishes them today, especially in terms of tourism.\u201d","foto":10930},{"acf_fc_layout":"foto_tekst","foto":10855,"tekst":"

A Broad Religious Foundation<\/h3>\r\nWith all that information, B\u00e9atrice began to write.\r\nThe eight characters are each based on authentic finds and actual find sites.\r\nFor example, Lucius the potter from Coriovallum (Heerlen) \u2014 now immortalised with his jug for Amaka in the Canon of the Netherlands.\r\n\r\nOf course, everything is historically sound, but there is more to the texts.\r\nEach character symbolically represents the municipality they belong to.\r\nFor Meerssen, the goddess Minerva embodies the town\u2019s historical and diverse (Christian and Jewish) religious foundation \u2014 an easy choice for B\u00e9atrice, since parts of a Minerva figurine were found in Bunde, part of the municipality of Meerssen."},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_foto","tekst":"

Mixed and Free<\/h3>\r\nFor Simpelveld and Bocholtz, after some thought, the choice fell on Julius, a Batavian and veteran of the Roman army who retired in the Bocholtz area. \u201cI wanted to show that there was already a mixed society back then. And in Meerssen, with the choice of Minerva and the many other gods of the Roman era, you can also see a reference to religious freedom.\u201d\r\n\r\n ","foto":10867},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst","tekst":"

\u201cA Joy to Write\u201d<\/h3>\r\nFor Maastricht, B\u00e9atrice chose the story of Servatus, a wine merchant originally from Gaul.\u201cI portrayed him as someone who enjoys life and sees opportunity everywhere. His profession as a wine trader from the Rh\u00f4ne Valley is no coincidence \u2014 for me, it symbolises the international and Burgundian character of Maastricht. It was great fun to write.\u201d\r\n\r\nNotably, all the stories were spoken in Dutch, but Servatus speaks Maastricht dialect. \u201cThe voice actor translated my original Dutch text into Maastricht dialect himself,\u201d B\u00e9atrice says.\r\nAs a joke, she has Servatus express the wish that his name will live on in Maastricht long after his death."},{"acf_fc_layout":"foto_tekst","foto":10933,"tekst":"

Emma Kok and the WMC<\/h3>\r\nA story with a modern undertone features a young woman from a small farming settlement in Kerkrade Maar-West (now the site of a McDonald\u2019s).\r\nBetween her work in the fields, she dreams of becoming a singer \u2014 a nod to the meteoric rise of Emma Kok from Kerkrade.\r\nThe \u201csinging farmer\u2019s daughter\u201d is also a tribute to the home city of the World Music Contest (WMC).\r\n\r\nAll the stories are set in the distant past, yet the language is not archaic. \u201cSometimes I deliberately choose modern expressions,\u201d B\u00e9atrice says. \u201cJulius from Bocholtz says: \u2018I live here in a five-star landscape.\u2019 It\u2019s a playful wink to the promotional language used in tourist brochures.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_foto","tekst":"

A Small Screen<\/h3>\r\nAfter months of research, consultation, and writing, 28 December finally arrived for B\u00e9atrice in Maastricht. She was unable to attend the premiere in Meerssen, but in her own city, she saw the final result for the first time. \u201cWhile you\u2019re working on it, you only see the videos on a small screen. I went with my two sons, both in their thirties, to see it in Maastricht and later in Valkenburg. There, seeing it larger than life, I could truly experience it as a visitor. Yes, it was a wonderful project. On one hand, you\u2019re sharing knowledge, but you also have to be very creative. That made it both exciting and great fun. Sometimes I heard the audience chuckling at my jokes \u2014 that\u2019s when I knew I had achieved my goal: capturing attention and conveying information through amusement.\u201d","foto":10936},{"acf_fc_layout":"tekst_quote","tekst":"The new approach, in which characters tell their own stories, will be continued. The first step is a new series of texts for the Via Belgica walking routes. The new Roman Museum being developed in Heerlen will also adopt this method.","quote":"\u201cOn one hand, you share knowledge \u2014 but you must also be creative. That\u2019s what made it exciting and so enjoyable for me.\u201d","naam":"B\u00e9atrice de Fraiture"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16213"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16213\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16217,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16213\/revisions\/16217"}],"acf:term":[{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"category","href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/33"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viabelgica.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}