Palio of the Emperor of Suvereto

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The Palio dedicated to summer tourists on August 13 at night

Since 1994 an edition of the Palio dell’Imperatore has also been held in August at night, to give the thousands of tourists on the Etruscan Coast the opportunity to appreciate the spectacular race and the local gastronomy. It is held in memory of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VII of Luxembourg, who died suddenly and mysteriously in Buonconvento (Siena) during a military campaign to bring the Italian lordships into line. His mortal remains remained in the Ghibelline castle of Suvereto from 1313 to 1315, before being transferred to the mausoleum dedicated to him in the cathedral of Pisa. According to tradition, Dante Alighieri himself – a great supporter of the “emperor of hope” to whom he dedicated verses in the Divine Comedy (“l’Alto Arrigo”) – came to Suvereto in the thousand-year-old Romanesque church of S. Giusto to pay homage to the body of the Emperor.

The Palio on the eve of Ferragosto is disputed between teams of “pushers” representing the Suvereto terzieri and the hamlets, with preliminary rounds and finals, rolling wooden barrels of 5 quintals of wine through the paved streets of the historic center. The pairs of pushers put the belly barrel and push it as evenly as possible on the circuit trying to overtake their opponents.