Siena and the Palio, Siena, Italy

The Palio is essential to the life of the Contrade. The Contrade in turn are essential to the life of Siena. The Palio, the Contrade, and Siena thus constitute a virtually interdependent trinity - a quote from the historian Judith Hook.

It was not long after our arrival in Siena in Tuscany before we plunged into the history of the Palio. We had turned down a side street that was festooned with flags and then stopped outside a very innocuous building. It was the chapel of the Contrada di Civetta or owl. Their horse would enter this chapel to be blessed before running in the Palio.

A short distance further down this street we turned into the small courtyard that was the ‘home’ of the contrada. In the middle of it was a pillar with an owl perched on the top. It took a while to convince me that it was an owl as it was so weather beaten it was difficult to tell what it was. Infants born in this contrada are blessed by this column - a tradition that had clearly been followed for hundreds of years.

In the far corner of the courtyard was the stable where the horse that was running for contrada would be stabled just before the race. The horses that run in the Palio do not belong to the contrada but they are supplied by local breeders and allocated to the ten contrade competing in the race by lottery. The selection of the ten contrade out of seventeen is also done by lottery. Every contrada has its own chapel, stable, administrative buildings and traditions and some have their own website. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).