page_title: Carroccio
section_title: 12th century
hierarchical_section_title: Carroccio / History / 12th century
caption_attribution_description: English: Battle of Legnano
context_page_description: A Carroccio was a large four-wheeled wagon bearing the city signs around which the militia of the medieval communes gathered and fought. It was particularly common among the Lombard, Tuscan and, more generally, northern Italian municipalities. Later its use spread even outside Italy. It was the symbol of municipal autonomy. Priests celebrated Mass at the altar before the battle, and the trumpeters beside them encouraged the fighters to the fray.
  Defended by selected troops, paved with the colors of the municipality, it was generally pulled by oxen and carried an altar, a bell, an antenna on which a Christian cross and the city signs. In peace time it was kept in the main church of the city to which it belonged.
  In battle the Carroccio was surrounded by the bravest warriors in the army as the Carroccio guard, and it served both as a rallying-point and as the palladium of the city's honour; its capture by the enemy was regarded as an irretrievable defeat and humiliation.
context_section_description: Documents of 1158 and 1201 confirm the presence of the Milanese Carroccio, in peacetime, in the church of San Giorgio al Palazzo, while others still inside the Palazzo della Ragione. The first document cited contains information on the need to make an iron shield to be placed in the choir of the mentioned church, which was located near the Carroccio, with the lighting of a votive fire fed by a pound of oil. The 1201 document contains similar information: the archbishop and the religious of the San Giorgio al Palazzo church in Milan should have lighted votive lamps around the Carroccio.
  In 1159 the municipal troops of Brescia conquered the Carroccio of the Cremona area during a battle. The cart was then carried in triumph between the streets of Brescia and was placed in the church of reference of the community, with the "martinella" which was positioned on the civic tower of the city.
  The Carroccio was the protagonist in the battle of Legnano (29 May 1176), during which he was defended, according to legend, by the Company of Death, led, according to popular tradition, by Alberto da Giussano, a fictional character who actually appeared only in literary works of the following century. According to the legend, during the fight, three doves out of the burials of the saints Sisinnio, Martirio and Alessandro at the basilica of San Simpliciano in Milan rested on the Carroccio causing the flight of Frederick Barbarossa.
  Instead, according to the real historical facts, the municipal infantry arranged a decisive resistance around the Carroccio which allowed the remaining part of the Lombard League army, actually led by Guido da Landriano, to arrive from Milan and defeat Frederick Barbarossa in the famous clash of Legnano. Today it is difficult to establish precisely the exact location of the Carroccio in reference to the current topography of Legnano. One of the chronicles of the clash, the Cologne Annals, contain important information:
  [...] The Lombards, ready to win or die on the field, placed their army inside a large pit, so that when the battle was in full swing, no one could escape. [...]
  — Annals of Cologne
  This would suggest that the Carroccio was located on the edge of a steep slope flanking the river Olona, so that the imperial cavalry, whose arrival was planned by Castellanza along the river, would have been forced to attack the center of the army of the Lombard League going up the escarpment: this decision later proved to be strategically incorrect, given that Frederick Barbarossa came instead from Borsano, or from the opposite side, which forced the municipal troops to resist around the Carroccio with the escape road blocked by the Olona.
  Considering the evolution of the clash, this could mean that the crucial phases in defense of the Carroccio have been fought on the territory of the San Martino contrada (more precisely, near the 15th century church of the same name, which in fact dominates a slope that descends towards the Olona) or of the Legnanese quarter of "Costa di San Giorgio", since in another part of the neighboring areas it is not possible to identify another depression with the characteristics suitable for its defense. Considering the last hypothesis mentioned, the final clash could also have taken place on part of the territory now belonging to the contrade of Sant'Ambrogio and San Magno (between the quartier of "Costa di San Giorgio" and the Olona is still present a steep slope: this slope was later included in the Castello park) and to the municipality of San Giorgio su Legnano.
caption: The battle of Legnano in a painting by Massimo d'Azeglio. In the background, one can see the cross and the city signs positioned on the Carroccio
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