Every year Cortona has a medieval reenactment detailing how Cortona celebrated Francesco Casali's marriage to Antonia Salimberi of Siena in 1397. It also is the Feast of the patron saint of Cortona, Santa Margherita and the town celebrates in full costume in the Piazza Repubblica with drums, horns and presentations from the different families who make up the five sections of Cortona. Visitors from all over the world come every year to see the thousand year old traditions that have been recreated through processions and ceremonies reenacted in authentic costume as well with musician and flag throwing. The "Giostra Dell'Archidado", crossbow competition winds up these events that happen over the week long celebration.
Friday - April 29th, 2005
Friday night began the event with a ceremony called "Presentation of the Wax" (Colata Dei Ceri) and consisted of a procession with drums and horns and a vocal and musical performance.
Since it was quite dark out I was only able to get a few photos showing the ceremonies.
The local families all take part in this event in medieval dress and represent the five sections of Cortona that come to present the wax for the celebration.
I was able to take some great video clips that really give you a feel for the ceremonies and all the drums. This is a LONG video as I joined all the clips together for one big file, but if you are interested it is almost like being there :)
Click HERE to see the video.
Saturday - April 30th, 2005
Saturday was the "Offering of the Candles to St. Margaret and Benediction of the Archers and the Golden Arrow" again held in the Piazza della Repubblica.
It was quite a procession with many people representing the five sections of Cortona. In the sunlight you could see the intricacy of the costumes and they were quite beautiful.
The young lady in light blue is our landlady Silvia! We were quite surprised to see her but just about everyone we knew was involved in the procession, even the lady from our butcher!
There were some amazing flag ceremonies with very skilled people waving and tossing around the flags.
I took a ton of pictures of the entire ceremony and you can view all of them in the "Offering of the Candles" Photo Gallery. You can click on any picture to see the full size version.
The procession continued down Via Nazionale, past our apartment and up to the top of Cortona, to the Chiesa Santa Margherita.
Here we are walking behind the mayor of Cortona (who looks younger than me) a cardinal and the chief of police. We sure know who to hang with!
Once inside Chiesa Santa Margherita, they painstakingly took the outer panels off the casket of Santa Margherita on the altar so that everyone could view her. The casket is lined with solid silver and is from the 17th century, though Santa Margherita died in late 1200.
We stayed for a little while, but there was a lot of sitting down and standing up combined with repeated verses we just didn't understand. although there was a nun who sang several songs in the most beautifully clear voice.
What an interesting day! There are a few more events this week, including Exhibition of Falconry, Medieval Night and Games with Flags, A Medieval Tradition and then next weekend is the big marriage reenactment celebration and joust of the crossbow.
Keep checking back for updates! I'm also still catching up my posting, so please click on a link to the left if it looks new!