Storia del Palio: Palios held on August 18

Tomorrow, weather permitting, the Palio will finally be run. Time to delve into the history of the Palio in search of similar situations. Tomorrow will be the fourth time a Palio is run on August 18. The last time dates back exactly 50 years.

Besides those four, there have been other Palios run on August 18, but these are cataloged as Straordianrio. These took place mainly in the 19th century and were run with riderless horses, or in the Roman style involving all contrade in the form of qualifying races and a final.

Of the three preceding ‘ordinary’ Palios, only the one in 1976 was postponed by two days due to bad weather; the other two, in 1822 and 1833, were not postponed due to weather problems, but for much more commercial reasons. In the first half of the 19th century, it was customary to postpone the race to the next available holiday to encourage a larger influx of visitors to the city. The Palio of August 18, 1822, was won by Torre with a debuting jockey, Giovan Battista Lanini, better known as Mugnaino, whom we can safely call a true meteor on the Piazza. Two years later, he had already vanished from the Palio radar. The race, attended by Grand Duke Ferdinand and the entire royal family, had a rather chaotic and mocking ending for two contrade: a few meters from the finish flag, which had been placed for the occasion beneath the Casin dei Nobili (palace just across from Fonte Gaia) to honor the illustrious guests, Montone with Brandino and Pantera with Serafinaccio battled for the victory. However, the cannon fired well too early, misleading the two jockeys and slowing their horses. Mugnaino capitalized on this general blunder and won an unexpected Palio.

In 1833, Lupa won, thanks to the horse’s final burst of strength. His jockey, Pipistrello, had crashed in the first San Martino, along with Giraffa’s Ghiozzo. Bruco was in the lead with Giacco, whose dreams of glory were shattered at the final Casato when he was overtaken by both Lupa and Giraffa, whom he had held off until then.

The Palio of August 18, 1976, is remembered more clearly. Bruco and Civetta were the two top favorites for the victory after the tratta. Fate placed Rimini in Via del Comune and Panezio in Castellare. The two contrade competed for Aceto, which favored Panezio, allowing Mauro Matteucci, better known as Marasma, to make his debut for Bruco. The Palio was exciting: Bruco was first out of the starting blocks, but in the San Martino, Tartuca passed with Quadrivio and Canapino, the latter, however, crashed. Tartuca’s scosso remained in the lead until the next San Martino, where a double turn occurred: Quadrivio went straight ahead and Marasma fell, leaving Rimini scosso in the lead, followed by Aceto, who had freed himself from Liscio’s grip at Leocorno. During the final San Martino, when the Brucaioli were already dreaming of victory, the turning point came: Rimini also refused to turn, and the road to victory for Bueno’s “cartoon” drappellone lay open for Civetta.

The Palio has been held on August 19th only twice (and we fervently hope that this will remain so for a long time…). In both cases, they were Straordinarios. In 1818 at the request of Grand Duke Ferdinand, and in 1894 a Palio alla Romana was held.

To be complete, an overview of all Palios that took place on August 18 (ordinary and Straordinarios):

• 1620: Bruco (bufalata)
• 1776: Leocorno
• 1783: Onda
• 1788: Pantera
• 1789: Oca
• 1822: Torre
• 1833: Lupa
• 1839 Pantera (scossi)
• 1841: Nicchio
• 1842: Istrice
• 1889: Drago (scossi)
• 1907: Lupa (scossi)
• 1976: Civetta

Below images of the race itself, and a documentary by Ricordi di Palio and Michele Fiorini.