Father Alberto Maria de Agostini (2 November 1883 – 25 December 1960) born in Pollone, Piedmont was an Italian missionary of the Salesians of Don Bosco order as well as a passionate mountaineer, explorer, geographer, ethnographer, photographer and cinematographer.
Life
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De Agostini lived as a missionary in Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia, between Chile and Argentina, where he was the first person to reach several mountain peaks, glaciers and sea sounds; and discovered others, some named after him.
In January–February 1931 he, Egidio Feruglio, and the alpine mountain guides Croux and Bron, were the first to fully cross the Southern Patagonian Ice Field; they did it from Lago Viedma (Argentina) to the vicinity of Patagonian channels of the Pacific Ocean (Chile), and back.
In 1941, he was the first to write about Cueva de las Manos.
He also sustained a long and deep relationship with the native people of Tierra de Fuego.
In addition he has left behind 22 books and written works in Italian, German and Spanish; a precious collection of several hundred photographs; and a documentary film; all of them on Patagonia and Tierra de Fuego and the Fuegian tribes.
He died in Turin on Christmas Day, 1960.
There is now an Alberto de Agostini National Park in the west part of Tierra del Fuego named after him.
Published works
Books
- Guía Turística de Magallanes y Canales Fueguinos (1924)
- Guía Turística de los Lagos Argentinos y Tierra del Fuego (?)
- El Lanín y sus alrededores. Parque nacional (1941)
- Ande Patagoniche – viaggi di esplorazione nella Cordigliera Patagonica australe (1949)
- Trent'anni nella Terra del Fuoco (1955)
- Sfingi di ghiaccio (1958)
Films
- Terre Magellaniche (1933)
Bibliography
- F. Surdich: De Agostini, Alberto Maria. In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani vol. 33 (online by treccani.it, Italian)
See also
References
- Gutiérrez De Angelis, Marina; Winckler, Greta; Bruno, Paula; Guarini, Carmen (2019). "Rethinking Paleolithic Visual Culture throughout immersive technology: The site "Cueva de las Manos" as a virtual "Denkraum" (Patagonia, Argentina)". View. Theories and Practices of Visual Culture (25). Widok. Foundation for Visual Culture. doi:10.36854/widok/2019.25.2081. hdl:11336/168949. ISSN 2300-200X. S2CID 229288678.
- Podestá, María Mercedes; Raffino, Rodolfo A.; Paunero, Rafael Sebastián; Rolandi, Diana S. (2005). El arte rupestre de Argentina indígena: Patagonia (in Spanish). Grupo Abierto Communicaciones. ISBN 978-987-1121-16-8.
- "1915–1928 Patagonia – Alberto Maria De Agostini | La redPEA en acción" (in Spanish). UNESCO. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2014.
- "Terre magellaniche (1933)". IMDb. 26 May 1933.
External links
- Father De Agostini and Patagonia (in Spanish)
- Father De Agostini, the priest mountaineer, photographer and explorer (in Spanish)
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