Palio di Siena
The wild horse race round the Campo, run twice every summer between the contrade, the neighbourhoods of the town.
Photo: Janus Kinase, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Siena is split into seventeen contrade, each with its own animal, colours, church, fountain and museum. On 2 July and on 16 August ten of them race in the Palio: three laps round the Campo, bareback, on a track of earth laid over the bricks, in about a minute and a half. A horse that has thrown its jockey can still win.
Days of trials, blessings of the horses in the contrade’s churches and a parade in medieval dress lead up to it. The winner takes the drappellone, a silk banner painted for each race, and the whole contrada celebrates for weeks. Ride through Siena in 3D ›
More in Siena
Piazza del CampoThe shell-shaped square at the heart of Siena, paved in red brick and sloping down to the town hall, where the Palio is run.
Palazzo PubblicoSiena’s Gothic town hall of brick and stone at the foot of the Campo, with the most famous frescoes of good and bad government.
Torre del MangiaThe slender brick tower of the town hall, 88 metres tall, with the stone crown of its bell chamber over the Campo.
Fonte GaiaThe marble fountain at the top of the Campo, where the water of Siena’s underground aqueducts first reached the square.
Duomo di SienaThe cathedral on the highest hill of the town, striped in white and dark green marble, with a floor of inlaid marble pictures.
FacciatoneThe bare front of the vast new cathedral that Siena began in 1339 and gave up after the Black Death.
Santa Maria della ScalaOne of the oldest hospitals of Europe, opposite the cathedral, which looked after pilgrims and foundlings for nearly a thousand years.
Loggia della MercanziaThe 15th-century loggia of the merchants’ court, at the crossing where Siena’s three main streets meet above the Campo.
Piazza SalimbeniThe small square of the palaces of the Monte dei Paschi, the oldest bank in the world still in business.
San DomenicoThe great brick church of the Dominicans on its own hill, where Saint Catherine of Siena prayed, and where her head is kept.
Fortezza MediceaThe fortress that Florence built after it took Siena in 1555, now a park on its walls above the town.
PanforteSiena’s dense cake of honey, almonds, candied fruit and spices, baked here since the Middle Ages.