The Palio di Legnano (; known locally simply as Il Palio) is a traditional event generally held on the last Sunday of May in the city of Legnano, Italy, to recall the Battle of Legnano held on 29 May 1176 by the Lombard League and the Holy Roman Empire of Frederick Barbarossa. Il Palio di Legnano This Palio is composed by a medieval pageant and a horse race. Until 2005 the whole event was named Sagra del Carroccio. Il Palio tra folklore e storia
Legnano is subdivided into eight contrade, each of which takes part both in the medieval pageant and in the horse race held at the stadio Giovanni Mari. This is considered one of the most important non-competitive events of this type in Italy. In 2003 the historic pageant was shown at the Columbus Day in New York City. Newsletter del Comune di Legnano
A lot of Palio-centric events take place in Legnano during May and July, such as the choral exhibition La Fabbrica del Canto '(The factory of singing)' born in 1992 from an idea of the musical association Jubilate. Da "Varese News" - La "Fabbrica del Canto" In 2015, institutions made 29 May a holiday for the whole of Lombardy. Festa della Lombardia
The premises Oldest celebrations
The earliest documented commemorations of the battle of Legnano (29 May 1176) between Frederick Barbarossa and the Lombard League took place on 28 May 1393 in Milan in the basilica of San Simpliciano.D'Ilario, 1976, p. 265.Autori vari, p. 115. In the document, which consists of a four-page decree issued by the podestà, the vicar and the Dodici di provvisione of the municipality of Milan, magistrates of the city were required to prepare a solemn procession to complete the civil ceremony which should have been concluded at basilica of San Simpliciano; at the time every civil celebration was in fact accompanied by a religious function. On this occasion it was decreed that on 29 May, the date of the battle of Legnano, it would be a day of civil and religious festivities throughout the Milanese countryside.
In 1499, with the occupation of the Duchy of Milan by the French Army, the festivity was first suppressed, then restored by St. Charles Borromeo in 1596, and finally suspended again from 1784.D'Ilario, 1976, p. 266. On 29 May he returned to being commemorated during the Italian unification as a symbol of the Italians' struggle against the foreign invader.D'Ilario, 1976, p. 268. The most important commemorations were those of 29 May 1848 in Milan during the revolutions of 1848, which took place solemnly in the basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in Milan, and those of 1876 in Milan and Legnano on the occasion of the 7th centenary of the battle. For the 7th centenary of the battle, more than 40,000 people from all over Italy and 197 banners representing all the provinces and municipalities of the Italian Peninsula came to Legnano.Autori vari, p. 118.
In Legnano, from the following years, on the wave of the celebrations of the 7th centenary, commemorations of the battle were occasionally organized by the population.D'Ilario, 1976, p. 270. The turning point came on 29 June 1900 with the inauguration of the Monument to the Warrior of Legnano by Enrico Butti, who replaced a previous statue made for the 7th centenary of the battle by Egidio Pozzi: from this date the official celebrations of the battle were transferred from Milan to Legnano, with the people of Legnano who began to remember the military battle on an annual basis.Ferrarini, p. 181. The monument was built at the behest of Giuseppe Garibaldi: on 16 June 1862, during a visit to Legnano at the invitation of the mayor of Legnano Andrea Bossi,Autori vari, p. 73. Garibaldi gave a speech urging the people of Legnano to erect a monument in memory of the famous battle of 29 May 1176:
As for the religious celebration at the basilica of San Simpliciano in Milan, still in the 21st century, on the last Sunday of May, the battle of 29 May 1176 is remembered with a procession and a religious function which includes the vigil of a copy of the cross of Aribert: a delegation from the city of Legnano and its contrade also participates in this celebration.
The attempt of 1926
The first proposal to organize an event with the contribution of the municipal administration of Legnano was hypothesized in 1926 by Carlo De Giorgi, journalist and local exponent of the National Fascist Party.Ferrarini, p. 189. De Giorgi, founder of the local periodical Lo Specchio, tried to put this idea into practice to commemorate the 750th anniversary of the battle, which fell in 1926.Autori vari, p. 119.
This idea was not followed because of the too high cost of organizing the event, which was estimated at 50,000 lire, an amount judged excessive even by Fabio Vignati, then podestà of Legnano and then head of the municipal administration, as well as a person attentive to the history of Legnano and often generous, even economically, towards cultural initiatives.
The estimated 50,000 pounds included 35,000 pounds to be used to pay the loan for 400 medieval clothes, and 15,000 pounds for horses destined for horse racing and for the oxen that should have pulled the copy of the Carroccio. This would have been a very conspicuous economic commitment: by comparison, to completely restore the bell tower of the basilica of San Magno, Legnano, again in 1926, 48,000 lire was spent.
The feast of the Carroccio of 1932
The first event officially organized by the town authorities of Legnano, which took place in 1932, was still on the initiative of Carlo De Giorgi.Autori vari, p. 121. This time the purpose of organizing a demonstration to commemorate the battle of Legnano followed because the political climate had changed in the meantime: fascism, for some time, had been busy stimulating the birth of events that celebrated national pride even with the giving of important funding. One of these events was the battle of Legnano, where the Italian troops of the Lombard League defeated the German armies of the Holy Roman Empire, ending the hegemonic dream of the German emperor Frederick Barbarossa on Northern Italy.
This event, which was called "Festa del Carroccio" and which this time had the full support of the municipal administration, included a gastronomic fair set up in the modern Via Diaz and Matteotti, a medieval pageant through the streets of Legnano and a horse race that came organized at the local sports field Brusadelli (built as a sports center for the dopolavoro of the Cotonificio Dell'Acqua,Autori vari, p. 124. now it is named after Pino Cozzi, historical president of the Unione Sportiva Legnanese) and which did not end due to the death of a jockey, a teenager of only 15 years untrained to the races, who fell from his horse and was killed instantly.Autori vari, pp. 121-122. With the Festa del Carroccio, it then passed from austere and solemn civil celebrations to a folkloristic and sporting show, although not lucky, at least in its first edition, due to the misfortune mentioned.Autori vari, p. 122.
As a result of the tragedy that struck the young jockey, in the years immediately following, the horse race was not repeated, without prejudice to the organization of the other events, which continued to take place even later. The ten contrade that were to participate in the first edition of the Palio di Legnano (1935) were established in 1932 on the occasion of the Festa del Carroccio:D'Ilario, 2000, p. 4. Ponzella, Olmina, San Bernardino, Legnarello, San Martino, Sant'Erasmo, Sant'Ambrogio, San Domenico, La Flora and San Magno, with the last eight still taking part in the modern event.
History The 1930s The first edition
The Palio di Legnano, in its modern version, was organized for the first time on 26 May 1935 among the ten contrade mentioned above, later reduced to eight.D'Ilario, 1984, p. 335. The palio was born then during the fascist era, in a historical context in which the state authorities were committed to coercively promote all aspects related to Italian nationalism, recalling, where necessary, the events that marked the history of Italy in a victorious way. Referring to the first edition of the palio, the fascist hierarch Rino Parenti wrote:D'Ilario, 1984, p. 118.
In the first pre-war editions, the victory at the palio was not determined only by the horse race, but also by three other competitions: a foot race, a bicycle race and an automobile competition. The contrade were then assigned a score for each placement in the four specialties, whose sum proclaimed the winner of the palio. The first edition of the horse race, which was held in 1935, was won by the Contrada San Domenico, followed by Legnarello and La Flora. The debut of the Legnano palio was a success, both in the public and in the organization, so much so that tourists from other Italian cities also attended.
The name of the jockey who won the first edition of the horse race, Vittorio Ciapparelli, is however disputed by Franco Marini, formerly Grand Priory of the Contrada San Domenico and eyewitness of the 1935 horse race: Marini claims that the competition was actually won by a horse without jockey previously led by Pierino Ramolini, an event that was resumed and transmitted, according to the former Grand Prior of the Contrada San Domenico, by the newsreel Luce.Ferrarini, pp. 179-180. However, Marini's thesis is contradicted by official sources that report, as the name of the victorious jockey, that of Ciapparelli.Ferrarini, p. 180. This contradictory information is due to the fact that in the first editions the horse race was not considered of primary importance compared to the other events of the event, so much so that its first roll of honor was only compiled in 1938: just on this first edition of the list of winners of the horse race the name of Vittorio Ciapparelli is reported.
The other editions of the decade
The first edition of the horse race was held at the sports field Brusadelli, while later the race was moved to the city stadium in Via Pisacane, where it is still organized.Autori vari, p. 324. The transfer to the city stadium was not the only novelty of that year: from the canapo (the front rope) it was passed to the starting belts, and the bareback riding was replaced by the mount with the saddle.Autori vari, p. 325. The canapo was then reintroduced in 1952 to then be replaced by ribbons in the following year, while from 1961 to 1963 the departure of the horses was decreed by the opening of cages.Autori vari, p. 332. In 1963 the starting ribbons were reintroduced, which were replaced in 1974, this time definitively, by the canapo.Autori vari, p. 332 and 339.
Already from the second edition (1936) the name of the event changed into "Sagra del Carroccio": this was due to a direct order by Benito Mussolini, which forced the organizers of the event to change the name of the event in such a way that the term "palio" was associated, exclusively, with the homonymous manifestation of Siena. On 5 June 1935, shortly after the end of the first edition of the event, Galeazzo Ciano, undersecretary of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Italy with responsibility for the Press and Propaganda, sent a telegram to the prefect of Milan, immediately forwarded to the prefectural commissioner of Legnano, which reported the following order: