page_title: Palio di Legnano
section_title: The other editions of the decade
hierarchical_section_title: Palio di Legnano / History / The 1930s / The other editions of the decade
caption_attribution_description: Italiano: Sfilata storica per il Palio di Legnano 2015
context_page_description: The Palio di Legnano is a folk event generally held on the last Sunday of May in the City Of Legnano, Italy, to recall the Battle of Legnano held on May 29, 1176 by the Lombard League and the Holy Roman Empire of Frederick Barbarossa. This Palio is composed by a medieval pageant and a horse race. Until 2005 the whole event was named Sagra del Carroccio.
  Legnano is subdivided into eight contrade, each of which takes part both in the medieval pageant and in the horse race held at the stadio Giovanni Mari. This is considered one of the most important non-competitive events of this type in Italy. In 2003 the historic pageant was shown at the Columbus Day in New York City.
  A lot of Palio-centric events take place in Legnano during May and July, such as the choral exhibition La Fabbrica del Canto '' born in 1992 from an idea of the musical association Jubilate. In 2015, institutions made 29 May a holiday for the whole of Lombardy.
context_section_description: The first edition of the horse race was held at the sports field Brusadelli, while later the race was moved to the city stadium in Via Pisacane, where it is still organized. The transfer to the city stadium was not the only novelty of that year: from the canapo (the front rope) it was passed to the starting belts, and the bareback riding was replaced by the mount with the saddle. The canapo was then reintroduced in 1952 to then be replaced by ribbons in the following year, while from 1961 to 1963 the departure of the horses was decreed by the opening of cages. In 1963 the starting ribbons were reintroduced, which were replaced in 1974, this time definitively, by the canapo.
  Already from the second edition (1936) the name of the event changed into "Sagra del Carroccio": this was due to a direct order by Benito Mussolini, which forced the organizers of the event to change the name of the event in such a way that the term "palio" was associated, exclusively, with the homonymous manifestation of Siena. On 5 June 1935, shortly after the end of the first edition of the event, Galeazzo Ciano, undersecretary of the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Italy with responsibility for the Press and Propaganda, sent a telegram to the prefect of Milan, immediately forwarded to the prefectural commissioner of Legnano, which reported the following order:
  [...] For obvious reasons the Duce has established that the palio denomination is reserved for the traditional Sienese event and that the Legnano one is instead called "Sagra del Carroccio". [...]
  — Galeazzo Ciano, 5 June 1935
  For the 1936 edition the organizing committee made an effort to make the palio more evocative: the contrade were the main protagonists in the organization and the soldiers of the 3rd Regiment "Savoia Cavalleria" of Milan were involved in the medieval pageant, where they played the Company of Death. The second edition of the event was attended by other soldiers of the Italian Armed Forces stationed in Legnano as part of the historic procession. In 1936 the historic contrade were reduced to nine, with the suppression of the Contrada Ponzella, a number that fell to eight in 1937, with the suppression also of the Contrada Olmina. The popular and qualitative growth of the event continued to progress also in the following years, above all as regards the parade, which gradually became more and more suggestive.
  In 1937 it was officially decided to cadence the Sagra del Carroccio every year: on this occasion the contrade endowed themselves with peculiar colors and a banner, while important personalities of the city life were put at the head of the historical contrade; it is from this edition that the competition between the contrade began to spread. Three official committees were then set up for the organization of the event: the actual organizing committee, pertaining to the after-work of municipal employees, which was dedicated to the general aspects, and two specific committees dealing respectively with the artistic-cultural aspects and those purely administrative.
  The Sagra del Carroccio was interrupted after the 1939 edition: the organizers did not want to irritate the German ally with a demonstration that called for an Italian military victory over German armies. This sentiment was also shared by the upper echelons, and therefore all the celebrations of the date of May 29 that were held on the national territory were suspended. The 1939 edition was attended by the princes of House of Savoy, some military and civilian personalities of Milan and the representatives of the municipalities that had once coalesced in the Lombard League. This edition was a great success, both among the citizens of Legnanese and among tourists, so much so that it is remembered as one of the most successful palios. Due to the suspension of the event, the copy of the cross by Aribert, coveted palio of the horse race, was kept in the church of Sant'Erasmo, a religious building of reference for the homonymous contrada that won in 1939, for more than ten years.
caption: The Carroccio in the medieval pageant for the Palio di Legnano 1939
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