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Between the Two Wars |
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After the pause imposed on the Palio and the Contrade by the War, the community life of the Associations refound its vigor, but with the advent of Fascism it passed under the aegis of the National Recreational Organization. Historic seats and churches of the Contrade remained untouched. Change was not always peaceful; the new authorities disbanded the more riotous Contrada associations, such as the “Dawn” in the Caterpillar and the “Rhinoceros” in the Tower. To avoid the same fate, the “Castelmontorio” in the Ram Contrada disbanded itself. But new Societies were founded, negotiating with the new regime for their own kind of autonomy, in keeping with the always and never true adage: “In the Contrade there are no politics.” During Fascism the Contrade made the occasional sortie from their natural context: they went to Rome in 1930 for the “princely wedding” of Humbert of Savoy and Maria José of Belgium, and to the Boboli Gardens in Firenze in 1936. There, mingling their own with other shows of “virile games” which the regime had resuscitated deeming them useful in forging “agile, swift, and eager” youth, the representatives of the Palio saluted Hitler and Musolini. Vittorio Emanuele III came often to the Palio, almost always privately. Siena became a frequent side trip during his vacation in San Rossore. The King watched the Palio from the Palazzo Comunale, from the window at which Carlo V had once appeared. The jockeys all raised their riding crops to the King in July, 1937 before going to the starting rope, introducing an innovation still part of the Palio ritual. The 1936 Palio was dubbed “the Empire” for it celebrated the African enterprises of Facsicm. The Banner won by the Giraffe was then autographed by the “Emperor King.” The Giraffe for that felicitous win and with the backing of the royal house, began to call itself “imperial.” With the calmness and distance the Palio has always shown to regimes, it described itself in its hymn as “royal, imperial, republican once again!” The Palio sees regimes as ephemeral compared to the Palio itself: They belong to short-term history and to superficial structures; the Palio feels part of deep structures and of long-term history. “He will have to go and I will remain,” Savonarola said about Lorenzo de’ Medici, expressing a similar view. Mussolini showed himself sensitive to the request of the Municipality of Siena, which even then sought to protect the Palio from other revivals that sprang up on the Peninsula. In answer to a request submitted by Podestà Bargagli Petrucci, a letter reached the Prefect of Siena in 1935, communicating that “the Duce has, by appropriate ordinance, decreed that the name Palio shall be reserved exclusively for the Palio of Siena.” Yet Mussolini never came to the Palio. The joke went around that the Duce, believing himself unique, ill-tolerated the idea of coming to a city that already had 17 Duci. |
 Dario Neri: Poster for the Palio of 2 July 1928. Siena, Historic Archive of the Municipality |
Between the 2 wars the Historic Procession became ever more splendid and solemn. The renewal of the costumes and of the Carroccio wagon occurred in 1928, under the supervision of a commision of “artists and experts on the subject” presided over by the Podestà. Expenses, paid by the Municipality, by the Monte de Paschi Bank, by the Contrade, and by underwriting from private citizens amounted to more than a million lira. The style chosen for the costumes was that of the late 1400s, for in that time the Contrade had started to appear in the Piazza. The Procession thus began to quote its own past explicitly, closing itself off symbolically in a full-circle as had occurred in the transition from the linear to the circular Palio. The new Carroccio wagon, adorned with Contrade allegories painted by Federigo Joni, was pulled not by horses but by 6 chianina oxen, as if in homage from the Sienese countryside to the city. In 1936 figures were introduced standing for corporations and the arts and the tribunal of the mercantile guilds. Spear-carriers of the Palazzo increased, escorting the Carroccio wagon, two drummers sonorously closing the Procession. The theatrical activities of Silvio Gigli met with great popularity among the Contrade. Luigi Bonelli’s operetta “Rompicollo” with its Palio setting was performed in Italy and abroad. In 1932 Alessandro Blasetti came to Siena to shoot “Palio,” a mystery film (the script borrowed several short stories by Bonelli) shown in cinemas throughout Italy with success. But the new phenomenon was the founding in the Contrade of sporting groups and football teams: in 1928 , 11 such teams were active.
Between the 2 wars the Historic Procession became ever more splendid and solemn. The renewal of the costumes and of the Carroccio wagon occurred in 1928, under the supervision of a commision of “artists and experts on the subject” presided over by the Podestà. Expenses, paid by the Municipality, by the Monte de Paschi Bank, by the Contrade, and by underwriting from private citizens amounted to more than a million lira. The style chosen for the costumes was that of the late 1400s, for in that time the Contrade had started to appear in the Piazza. The Procession thus began to quote its own past explicitly, closing itself off symbolically in a full-circle as had occurred in the transition from the linear to the circular Palio. The new Carroccio wagon, adorned with Contrade allegories painted by Federigo Joni, was pulled not by horses but by 6 chianina oxen, as if in homage from the Sienese countryside to the city. In 1936 figures were introduced standing for corporations and the arts and the tribunal of the mercantile guilds. Spear-carriers of the Palazzo increased, escorting the Carroccio wagon, two drummers sonorously closing the Procession. The theatrical activities of Silvio Gigli met with great popularity among the Contrade. Luigi Bonelli’s operetta “Rompicollo” with its Palio setting was performed in Italy and abroad. In 1932 Alessandro Blasetti came to Siena to shoot “Palio,” a mystery film (the script borrowed several short stories by Bonelli) shown in cinemas throughout Italy with success. But the new phenomenon was the founding in the Contrade of sporting groups and football teams: in 1928 , 11 such teams were active. |