Una sfida alla modernità: la Festa dei Ceri di Gubbio e il Palio di Siena nel XIX secolo

The text starts from images related to the Great War: soldiers from Gubbio and Sienese soldiers reproduce on the front emblematic rituals of their communities, the exhibition of the Ceri di Gubbio and the race of the Palio di Siena. These dynamics of dislocation and recreation of the ritual outside the usual space and time suggest a lot about the deeply rooted in the individual and collective experience of these secular festivals, which profoundly mark the social life and emotional dimension of the protagonists. In early modern times it is on the popular urban structure that the two festivals insist: the contrade in Siena, the corporations in Gubbio, ensure the continuity of the ritual over time, on which the aristocracy exercises a role of surveillance and protection. During the 19th century the social base of the two feasts underwent profound changes. The text will focus on the complex elements and dynamics that allowed the two feasts to project themselves beyond the threshold of the 19th century, to build themselves as civic feasts in the new framework of the national state.