Video: Great Horse Races in Italy: the epic competition of districts in Siena
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Horse racing - one of the most favorite entertainments and competitions of mankind. How many winners drank from effervescent cups on the lists and hippodromes, how many awards the horses received (up to the senator's mantle) - you can't count. And even now, when the iron car is everywhere replacing the racing horse, big jumps will continue - as long as the horses beat their hoof in the city of Siena, on the world famous Siena Palio: the largest and most pretentious gathering "district by district" in the world.
Great horse racing Palio de Siena are held every year on July 2 and August 16. The history of this competition begins in 1590, and, as often happens, at its source is the will of the ruler of the city. But the local duke did not command the Sienese to arrange races - on the contrary, he forbade … bullfighting, which was then a favorite pastime not only in Spain, but also in Italy. The Siena did not grieve for long, and decided to replace the game with death with dangerous races - after all, without spectacles and bread does not go down the throat of the people. First they tried to ride bulls, then donkeys - but in 1656 it dawned on someone that they could ride horses.
And so it happened. Every local area - contrada - still exhibits his team at the races. At the same time, the meaning of symbols and colors is no less than in football. And how poetic the names of the districts are! Niccio-Sink, Oka-Goose, Torre-Tower, Tartuka-Turtle, Leocorno-Unicorn … " What a contradiction are you, kid?"-" From the contrada of the Brownie Owl! "- such a conversation can be quite heard in the amazing city of Siena. Each contrada has its own fountain, baptismal, square, museum and a special motto - and the one born in it will be the" Eagle "or" Snail "for the whole life.
And all these district teams, all the colors and banners, can be seen in the procession leading up to the big races: the historic Corteo Storico parade. And after the parade, Palio himself begins. From 17 districts of Siena only 10 compete, who have shown themselves well before - and the rest enviously bite their elbows.
Races take place at a distance of 1 kilometer, and the intensity of passions is such that horses arrive at the finish line without a rider: in this case, the prize is awarded to the horse itself, and not to the jockey. And the final big races in Siena, regardless of the results, there are mass festivities in which all areas are reconciled. Eagle and Turtle, Snail and Wolf have fun under the Italian sky: making friends is more fun than competing!
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