Siena and its Contrade: The Noble Contrada of the Eagle
Posted on 16. Aug, 2010 by admin in Archive, Culture
La Nobile Contrada dell’Aquila is one of the seventeen historical subdivision of the Tuscan city of Siena.
The origins of the coat of arms derives from the noble family of the Marescotti, who resided in this area in ancient times.
Aquila was the last contrada of Siena to participate in the Palio. After the victory of the bufalata n 1610 — a precursor of the Palio in which buffalos would compete instead of horses — the Contrada did not participate for many years.
Only in 1718 did the nobleman Giovanni Antonio Pecci obtain permission from the local magistrate for the Contrada to participate in the Palio, arousing the ire of the neighbouring Contrade (Onda, Tortuga, Pantera and Selva) who considered Aquila obsolete and had already divided up its territory between them.
On the 2 July 1719, Captain Bulgarini of the Aquila Contrada conquered the first victory with the jockey Strega who mounted the horse Vegliantino. A Drappellone or traditional drape was painted in that occasion and is exhibited in the museum of the Contrada dell’Aquila and is the oldest in Siena.
The patron saint of the Contrada is the Most Holy Name of Mary, celebrated on the 12 September and a memorial baptismal font completed in 1963 by the sculptor Bruno Buracchini can be found in Piazza Postierla. The motto of the Contrada “Unguis et Rostris”, inscribed on the base of the font is commonly thought to be derived from the French city of Avignon “Unguibus et Rostro”.
The Contrada bears the word “Nobile” or noble by concession of the Hapsburg Emperor Charles V following his visit to Siena in 1536 when he was received in the piazza di Postierla duly festooned for the occasion. An unknown chronicler of that period wrote: “with a beautiful model of an eagle, well-proportioned, made of wood and painted black and gilded with gold and bearing the writing Praesidium libertatis nostrae”.
A manuscript of 1718 also states: “on the 24 April of the Year of Our Lord, 1536 when the Emperor Charles V honoured our city with his visit, this Contrada — with the wish to express ourselves as his true subjects — gathered together in over three hundred with the emblem of a gilded Eagle for which the Emperor was not only pleased but honoured by such a singular manifestation, thus gave his permission to raise the Imperial two-headed Eagle and granted to this contrada the right to use the name of “Noble and Privileged”.
Another recording of this historical event states: “…this noble and honoured Contrada, after three in the morning on leaving the City on his liveried horse and accompanied with a great number of torches and with a most beautiful chariot adorned with a great eagle and many other trophies and ornaments and with his men who sung in various parts of the city evoking great pleasure to those who heard this music accompanied by words praising this coat of arms”.
The words of the “singing” knights of the Contrada dell’Aquila went: “we are those who in song/ go around the world singing our song/ a most lofty and ferocious name/ Eagle Eagle we cry”. Perhaps the tradition of the Contrade of inventing their own popular songs can also be attributed to the Nobile Contrada dell’Aquila.
The Aquila is the only Contrada to have ever had a female jockey participate in the Palio alla Tonda. On the 16 August 1957, a young woman — Rosanna Bonelli aka Diavola (or better known as Rompicollo or Breakneck after an operetta composed by her father) dossed the yellow jacket of the Contrada dell’Aquila.
Official website of the Nobile Contrada dell’Aquila: www.contradadellaquila.com
