“It can be done!”. Word of Gabriel, the illusionist who continues to amaze with his extraordinary feats. Only three words that open a window on the mystery. Gabriel pronounced them at 7.30 this morning, Thursday 30 September, when he left his cell in the fortress of San Leo where Giuseppe Balsamo, better known as the Count of Cagliostro, was imprisoned exactly 230 years ago. A narrow room of ten square meters in which the prisoner was lowered through a trap door in the ceiling, with a small window closed by a triple series of bars from which light barely filters. The illusionist spent the whole night within those four walls. When the famous adventurer and esotericist was imprisoned there by the Inquisition Tribunal, many thought or feared that he would be able to escape thanks to his magical powers. He tried in vain for 4 long years, until the day he died. Today Gabriel, after a long period of study and preparation, has decided on what Cagliostro did not succeed: the escape from the cell in the Rocca di San Leo. And the night spent in the gloomy little room was decisive: “More than to study the environment – he said at the exit of the cell where he was locked up at 10pm the night before – I wanted to spend the night here to get in tune with the character. ; and yes, the inspiration came to me, I don’t know if I will succeed, but I feel I can ”. Gabriel, an internationally renowned illusionist, is among other things the creator and organizer of the International Magic Festival of San Marino (the next edition will take place from 11 to 13 March, and in all likelihood on that occasion the magician will attempt his feat). Last August 18 Gabriel had flown over the fortress with an acrobatic Robin to try to understand if there was technically the possibility of escaping. And the result of the inspection was positive. The night spent in the company of the ghost of Cagliostro confirmed that the escape of the century “It can be done”. Alessandro, count of Cagliostro was an adventurer, esotericist and alchemist: a figure who has always been immersed in mystery, so much so that there are also doubts about his true identity, even if the majority of historians agree that his real name was Giuseppe Balsamo, born in 1743 in Palermo). What is certain is that in a few years he became a true celebrity, received with great honors in all European courts and also loved by the people. A figure that has become legendary between mystery and magic, so much so that numerous books and films have been dedicated to Cagliostro. In 1789 his wife Lorenza denounced him to the Inquisition Tribunal. It was Pope Pius VI himself with his Secretary of State who decided to arrest him; the judges sentenced him to death as a “heretic, dogmatizer, heresiarcha, teacher and follower of superstitious magic”, a penalty then commuted to “perpetual prison in some fortress, where he must be strictly guarded, without hope of grace” as a result of his abjuration . And the chosen fortress was the inaccessible Rocca di San Leo, where he was transferred in 1791. A terrible prison, a real hell where he lived the last years of his life in absolute isolation. Any attempt to escape is useless: only death will free him from prison on August 26, 1795. Now, after almost 230 years, the illusionist Gabriel has the most impossible of escapes. And the night spent in San Leo, as he himself told, gave him the strength to try to restore freedom to a spirit chained in that cell for more than two centuries.

cs Festival Of Magic