Palio della Balestra 2011 in Gubbio

Within the ancient walls of Gubbio is kept unbroken since the fifteenth century (the oldest document in which it is put the word dates back to 1461), the ancient tradition of the Palio della Balestra. This contest of arms is held the last week of May, in honor of the Patron Saint Ubaldo, in the charming Piazza Grande, a beautiful plaza with fourteenth-century buildings and crowded with cheering crowd at every stroke of the crossbow. The Company Balestrieri Gubbio "hosts" to Sansepolcro, with "leg" in the Arezzo country the second Sunday in September.

The crossbow, or ballistic, it was officially mentioned for the first time in Italy in the year 1139, in the Lateran Council II documents: documents that literally defined them "deadly", so that is considered the queen of medieval weapons. In Gubbio appeared during the decline of the feudal institutions.

The crossbow takes its meaning from the greek word ballein, which translates to "throw", and his power passed to any other contemporary weapon of war. It consists of a bow attached to the top of a "tiniere" of wood, the latter with his "nut" can hold the rope that is tightly bend the bow and to release immediately the rope in order to impart the same impulse bullet to the crossbow, called "veretta", "verettone" or "quadrella. With the perfection of the gun was replaced by the arc of ox horns with wood ash, only to be finally replaced with the stronger and more elastic arch of steel.

Given the effectiveness of the weapon, every free city formed his body of archers, and sprang up the Society of Archers, whose skills often depended on the outcome of a battle. And Gubbio, which was no less strong and free of other municipalities, was born to die no more then the Society of Archers (Societas Balisteriorum) set with its own self and "Short", which is still in force even if "modernized."

With the introduction of firearms and their muskets, in the late fifteenth century, companies no longer had ballistae reason to exist and indeed, were often seen as bearers of internal problems to municipalities. Many were dissolved. And the stakes of the archers, the first funded by the institutions and supported and practiced by real soldiers, were abandoned. It survived all over Italy, becoming annual events among civilians, only twenty. And the most famous, without doubt, is the Palio of the Crossbow in Gubbio.

Accompanied by a parade, May 29th the archers of old Biturgio (Sansepolcro) will gather once again challenge the city of Gubbio, crossing its doors to compete in the Palio.



Tourist information:
Tourist Service Associate - IAT GUBBIO
Via della Repubblica, 15 - 06024 Gubbio (PG)
tel. 075 9220693 - 075 9220790 - fax: 075 9273409