Palio di San Donato

During the Middle Ages, various tournaments were held every year on 21 August to celebrate the patron saint of Cividale, St. Donatus. The celebrations took place in a context of grand feasting and bustled with pompous nobility and excited villagers.

It was such an important event for the city that in the annals of the Magnificent Community of Cividale, in the year 1368, a statute was drawn up declaring that on the day of St. Donatus a tournament, with the participation of knights and foot soldiers, was to be held forevermore. This act officially sanctioned an event which was already well established in Cividale: several documents from that period also referred to the event, for example Odorlico of Cividale in 1361 recorded the cost of cleaning the streets after the tournaments. The winner of the tournament was awarded a Palio, a much sought-after prize. Since the prize represented the prestige and importance of the city it was made of precious materials, sparing no expense: perhaps of a rich crimson-coloured damask, or a golden-coloured damask, but whatever the colour always of valuable fabric and superb workmanship. The last in the classification of the tournament would receive the proverbial piglet, sparrow hawk or cock.

The spectacular horse race began at the cathedral and bounding past the hamlet of Gagliano finished at the pietra della corsa (race stone), a stone still standing today. The contestants came from various areas: a large number came from Udine, others from Treviso, Venice, and Muggia. In turn the citizens from Cividale participated in tournaments held by other Friulian and Venetian cities.

The tournament was suppressed in 1574 and the part which is re-enacted today consists mainly of contestants running in a race and various archery competitions with targets such as the bell, the pole, the arrow loop, the rings and the sallet.