[powerpress]Vatican Radio:

In churches and piazzas and in homes all across Italy, nativity scenes or presepe as they’re called here have been set up to recall the humble birth of the Saviour in Bethlehem.

Naples has for centuries been one of the capitals of nativity scene-making here in Italy, with craftsmen creating elaborate figures, animals and entire villages out of clay and paper mache’. Pictures and paintings of the Nativity have been around since the very first Christians used them to record Christ’s birth. But the tradition of making a three dimensional presepe or creche dates back to the time of St. Francis of Assisi who is credited with making the first live nativity scene on a hillside in Umbria, Italy around the year 1220.

Tracey McClure sat down with Elizabeth Lev, Professor of Christian art and architecture at Duquesne University, for a fireside chat about the origins of nativity scenes and where some of the most interesting can be found here in Rome.