The Encylopedia of Science says: "The name 'faro' comes from that of the island of Pharos, off the coast of Alexandria in Egypt where, in 280 b.c., the architect Sostrate de Cnido had a terrassed tower constructed 120 meters high (it was one of the seven wonders of the world) at the summit of which fires fueled with resinous wood and oiled substances were kept lit every night and whose light was projected into the distance with metallic mirrors".
In 1960 Marcel Duchamp, during a presentation in Hofstra, Germany said: "I believe that today more than ever the artist has a religious mission to accomplish: to keep the flame of an inner vision burning of which the work of art seems to be, for the layman, the most faithful translation".
The beacon and its light appear to us in the distance like a splendid metaphor for what we are preparing to build. A fixed, clearly visible point, a guide, an orientation, a radiating center and a landmark.
Since February 2000, Pharos has also been the name of the non-profit cultural association which proposes to direct this project. The association is composed of two organisms: an administrative council and a scientific committee. The latter is made up of a nucleus of interdisciplinary, international researchers under the direction of Roberto Barbanti and Luciano Boi.

Rrose Sélavy
It was with the professional skill of artistic and cultural communications specialists, skill obtained at the "Albe Steiner" center for professional training in Ravenna (1993), that Simona Capra, Angela Gorini, Simonetta Piscaglia and Sabrina Raggini incorporated themselves into a cultural association in 1996. Since that year, they have been planning, organizing and promoting artistic events in Italy with particular attention to contemporary art, emphasizing dialogue, confrontation, and encounter among researchers, artists, communications experts, and the interested public. Among their activities, one might note two productions of the event Altra Musica Altri Canti-Ricerca e Sperimentazione nella Poetica di Fine Millennio (Bertinoro 1995, Longiano 1996), and among their recognitions the prize awarded by the Cultural Service of the Emilia Romagna Region, Art. 8 LR37/1994 for the project Altra Musica Altri Canti. They have been working since 1997 to define a project for the foundation of the International Center for Study and Research in Philosophy, Art and Science, in collaboration with the European scientific committee.

The place
Pharos, the center for studies and research, will have its seat in San Leo, which is situated in the province of Pesaro-Urbino, i.e., in the Marche region in Italy.
San Leo is the ancient Mons Feretrius, afterward dedicated to Léon, a Christian from Dalmatia and companion to Marin (who associates his name with the neighboring mountain) who wished to have constructed there a place of worship during the sixth century. Today San Leo is a very respectable tourist center which remains well preserved in a picturesque and evocative area.
The Fortress, set into the rock of San Leo in the remote past and a celebrated witness to military art, is the work of Francesco di Giorgio Martini, commissioned by Frédéric III and completed in 1475. The fortifications brought major importance to the city and improved its life. Between the IX and XII centuries, the Communitas Sancti Leonis began the construction of the parish on the subjacent plateau. It contains what is most certainly the oldest church in Montefeltro (IX century), and a lookout tower, made of sandstone blocks; these are the structures which defined the first elements of what would be, beginning in the XII century, the area of urban establishment.
The city was born in that moment: the latter appears, in the second half of the fourteenth century, clearly characterized as much by its level of structure as by its services. Between the XII and the XIII century the cathedral was also erected in the Romano-Lombardo style in finely worked sandstone and with materials salvaged from more ancient buildings, which no longer exist. Around the square, inscriptions in marble and coats of arms of the nobility adorn the palaces of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: Palazzo Medici (1521); Palazzo Della Rovere (beginning of the XVII century), which became the municipal residence; Palazzo Nardini, which belonged to the Counts Severino, where it seems the donation of the Verna mountain to Saint Francis took place. Saint Francis, an important figure in San Leo and environs, will become an integral part of the city's coat of arms.
Crossroads of history and legends, of the sacred and profane, the sacred height of gods and the ancient seigniory of the Counts of Montefeltro, San Leo appears as an opening onto forests, rocky peaks and inlets, fortresses, monasteries, villages, and country houses, guardians of the valley of the Marecchia river which draws the eye from Mt. Fumaiolo to the Adriatic Sea.

The project
It was in searching, among the Italian monastic patrimony, for a site which would welcome our idea of a center that we came upon the valley of the Montefeltro, a territory which adjoins the regions of Marche, Emilia Romagna, Toscana, Umbria and the Republic of Saint Marin.
The Montefeltro greets you with an immediate hospitality, offering you sites which are among the most fascinating in central Italy.
The route of St. Francis, which one can follow from the monastery of Sant'Igne, as well as from the ex-monastery of San Domenico (the former seat of a Dominican community) offers us the possibility of an artistic and cultural tour which is key to a reading of the area in its entirety.
An important objective of the center is the rediscovery of the historical, artistic, and environmental aspects of all of the Montefeltro, through the interactions of knowledge and a global perspective.
The objective is to open up the borders of Europe, not simply in terms of territorial limits, but in the direction of a global knowledge, freed from all academicism and useful in all of its aspects. One's charmed vision of these places is enhanced by a soft and mystic atmosphere, by a mysticism which comes in part from the revelatory passage of St. Francis.
The Saint chose these sites as spaces for meditation for himself and his companions. In giving to the project the imprint of a renewed spirituality, the objective is to return the monastic dwellings to their original function and beauty, to their immersion in silence and to their dedication to privacy, concentration and meditation.
The Pharos Center sees itself within the Franciscan tendency toward forms of simplicity, spontaneity and ethical and esthetic engagement. The idea is also that of restoring, according to the Dominican spirit, a value to study and research, both through solitary reflection and openness to dialogue, as well as a value to encounter and confrontation.
Our use of these spaces will be realized to the fullest possible extent thanks to the disposition of the diocese of Saint Marin-Montefeltro with which we've established a fruitful relation of collaboration and exchange.
The principle activities of the Center will be production, promotion, organization, direction and diffusion: a congress for study and research, encounters of national and international character, retreats for research and creation, study scholarships, editorial activities, courses and seminars for training and development, cultural and artistic activities, collaborations with researchers, institutions and individuals from other countries on compatible research projects.