Republic, Tourism & Living Tradition

The unified Italian nation-state and its formation.

1 chapter

1798 - 1946

The Risorgimento dismantled the Papal States — the institutional custodian of ritual for most of Central Italy — and reframed local traditions as national Italian heritage. Central Italy was annexed in stages: Tuscany and Umbria in 1860, the Marche in 1860, and Rome in 1870 when it became the capital of the new Kingdom of Italy. The Kingdom both revived old festivals and invented new ones as nation-building tools. The Carnevale di Viareggio, founded in 1873, used papier-mâché floats as satirical commentary on the new Italian state — a tradition that continues today. The Marino Sagra dell'Uva, Italy's oldest grape festival (founded 1925), celebrated the Castelli Romani grape harvest on volcanic slopes above Lago Albano — a timing determined by viticulture, not liturgy. Offida's Historic Carnival, with its Vlurd fire procession (bundles of reeds and straw set ablaze on Shrove Tuesday) and the Bovindo fake-ox farce, preserved a community ritual form with roots in 16th-century propitiatory peasant rites. The abolition of six Sienese contrade by Governor Violante Beatrice of Bavaria's edict in 1729 is attributed in the official Book of Bilia to poor organization; within contrade oral tradition, the abolition is linked to disorders from a disputed 1675 Palio. These accounts are not easily reconciled, but the six abolished contrade are still commemorated in the Corteo Storico by six riders with lowered helmets.

1530 - 1798

The Council of Trent (1545–1563) systematically reshaped local ritual practice, overlaying Eucharistic processions and Baroque spectacle onto existing traditions. The Papal States governed most of Lazio, Umbria, and parts of Marche; their institutional records present a top-down view of ritual that may obscure popular and local initiative. In Rome, the Chiesa del Gesù (consecrated 1584) became the Jesuit mother church, a model of Counter-Reformation architecture designed to impress and convert. Pope Paul IV established the Jewish Ghetto on July 14, 1555, with the bull Cum Nimis Absurdum — confining Rome's ancient Jewish community (present since 161 BCE) behind walls and suppressing the public visibility of its distinct Minhag Italki ritual tradition. At Genzano di Roma, the infiorata — a flower-carpet devotion — is documented since 1778 as a Corpus Domini practice; whether the flower-carpet practice built on earlier seasonal flower traditions requires further local research, though the coincidence of the Corpus Christi date with peak flower season creates a natural calendar overlap. Spello's infiorate follow the same pattern. At Loreto, the Holy House sanctuary (basilica construction began 1468, façade completed 1586 under Sixtus V) became one of the Catholic world's major pilgrimage destinations, its Counter-Reformation intensification creating a ritual economy that reshaped the surrounding territory.

1400 - 1530

The communal republics gave way to signorie — lordships ruled by powerful families — who poured wealth into architecture, art, and the spectacle that became Central Italy's festival vocabulary. In Florence, the Medici transformed the Baptistery and built the Palazzo Medici Riccardi, creating a model of humanist patronage that spread across Tuscany. In Urbino, Federico da Montefeltro built the Ducal Palace — now a UNESCO World Heritage Site — as a Renaissance ideal city that attracted scholars and artists from across Europe. Orvieto's cathedral, positioned on the processional route, became the focal point for Corpus Domini observances after the 1263 Bolsena miracle, though the current Baroque processional form dates to later overlay. Perugia passed from communal government to Baglioni family rule, then to papal control. Monteriggioni's fortified walls, built by Siena in the 13th century as a frontier outpost against Florence, still crown the hill — a material reminder that the boundaries between Siena and Florence shaped everything, including whose saints were celebrated and whose processions dominated the streets.

1100 - 1400

Between 1100 and 1400, Central Italy's cities seized self-governance from imperial and papal authority, forming communal republics that invented the institutional structures still visible in today's festivals. Lucca became an independent commune in 1160, controlling a key passage on the Via Francigena and building its wealth on silk trade. Siena's contrade — originally 59 neighborhood districts — crystallized into self-governing micro-communities, each with its own church, baptismal font, and archive; 17 survive today. The Palio di Siena, run on July 2 and August 16 in the shell-shaped Piazza del Campo, is the contrade's ritual of self-governance, not merely a horse race. At Gubbio, the Corsa dei Ceri — documented since the 12th century as a devotion to Saint Ubaldo — races three towering wooden structures (ceri) from Piazza Grande through the city gates and uphill to the Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo on Monte Ingino. Some scholars note that the ritual shares features with the pre-Roman Umbrian rites described in the Iguvine Tablets (3rd–1st c. BC), inscribed at the same site; the Fisian Arx described in the tablets has been placed on Monte Ingino, where the Ceri race ends. Neither position excludes the other: a pre-Christian ritual structure could have been absorbed into saint devotion. Meanwhile, Francis of Assisi launched a popular religious revolution that reshaped how Central Italians practiced ritual — shifting from institutional to affective devotion. The Calendimaggio at Assisi, while formally a lay event of the Parte di Sopra and Parte di Sotto, operates in the shadow of the Franciscan sacred space; both the official festival narrative and local tradition acknowledge its timing corresponds to the Kalends of May and links to pagan spring customs. Arezzo's Giostra del Saracino, documented by Dante in Canto XXII of the Inferno, established the joust tradition that would be revived in 1931.