Contrada (Venice)

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The Venetian contrade correspond roughly to the parishes or parish districts, of which Venice had around 70. In many cases they represented one of the more than 100 islets that made up the core city of Venice. In the medieval sources they mostly appear as confinia , later, when Venetian had established itself over Latin in writing, as contrade . A Venetian contrada usually includes the eponymous church, a square (campo), a fountain and an infrastructure for the distribution of goods, such as bakeries or restaurants, grocery or book shops. With the reduction in the number of parishes after the end of the Republic of Venice in 1797, several contrade were combined into one district and many of the canals that had separated the islets were filled in.

history

Contrade and Sestieri

The contrade, which for a long time mostly corresponded to an island, were each assigned to exactly one sestiere . In the 12th century, San Marco consisted of 16 contrade , Castello and Cannaregio of 12 each, Dorsoduro of 10 and Santa Croce and San Polo of 8 each. These numbers changed slightly in line with population growth and land reclamation. In 1586 Castello, Cannaregio, San Polo and Dorsoduro each had one more contrada than in the 12th century.

Corporate structure

The comparatively large economic independence in the distribution of goods gave the contrade considerable independence, which was also reflected in the fact that all social classes were represented there, be it aristocrats, craftsmen or urban poor. There were areas within the city that were more desirable and better equipped - many noble families preferred San Marco , the Grand Canal or Rialto , while the periphery was considered rather unattractive - but within the contrade the social groups lived close to one another and therefore lived together in close contact.

Political role

Each contrada elected a capita contratarum or capo contrade and the priest, who was only confirmed by the bishop and later by the patriarch . Nevertheless, the Venetian contrade were nowhere near as powerful and independent in relation to the commune as in Florence or Siena . In addition, from the 14th century onwards, the contrade were increasingly disempowered in favor of political centralization. The head of the Contrade of S. Angelo Raffaele and S. Nicolò dei Mendicoli, the Gastaldo Grande de'Nicolotti , held the title Dose dei Nicoloti and had special rights.

Fiscal role

The contrade and sestieri also provided the basis for property appraisals. At the same time, these asset records or catasti show the different distribution of assets in the city. In 1367 and 1425, for example, the exact assets of the contrade were determined in order to be able to subject them to irregular taxes, the imprestiti , which represented a kind of forced loan . These bonds were measured according to the amount of assets, which initially only had to be declared by the subscriber, but from the late Middle Ages onwards was recorded in cadastral form . For the city as a whole, this resulted in a value of 363,421 ducats in 1425 , including San Marco 95,641, Castelo 65,363, Cannaregio 61,404, San Polo 55,933, Dorso Duro 46,367 and Sta. Croxe contributed 38,713 ducats to taxable wealth.

Rivalries between the Contrade, 12 Marien

There was considerable rivalry between the contrade, which was particularly evident in the celebration of the Twelve Marians ( la festa delle Marie ) when the youngsters of the rival contrade mocked or insulted each other.

According to legend, this feast of Maria Lichtmeß went back to the kidnapping of brides by pirates from Trieste from a wedding reception in San Pietro di Castello. They were freed from the Contrada Santa Maria Formosa by craftsmen. This legend does not appear in the oldest chronicles, but since the 13th century the festival has been justified with the alleged victory over pirates. The details of what kind of pirates they were and when exactly the event took place vary. With this, a gradual decoration took its course, which raised the twelve Marys to the level of the robbery of the Sabine women and was often processed literarily. A boat parade from San Marco via San Pietro di Castello to Santa Maria Formosa , with which the supposed historical victory was celebrated, was introduced in 1143 under the Doge Pietro Polani. At this festival the Doge originally gave twelve poor girls a trousseau for their wedding. In 1272 the number was reduced to four, later this festival was the only overarching celebration that was organized and financed exclusively by the contrade. The festival of the Twelve Marys, organized by the women of the contrade, was banned in 1379 because of the escalating costs and riots. In 1999 the Festa delle Marie was revived.

The Festa delle Marie was originally celebrated for a whole week, later shortened to 3–4 days. The celebration took place as part of the Carnival between January 25th and February 2nd. There were banquets in the noble palaces and the ludi mariani , games that consisted of regattas , games in the narrower sense and the public gathering of women, as well as several processions. In rotation, two contrade were responsible for the implementation and financing, and they carried out a procession according to their prestige. Liturgical and theatrical performances as well as the reception of the Doge were the highlights. After the procession participants had returned to their two contrade, new games began. Six noble or wealthy middle-class families opened their houses and presented a lavishly decorated sculpture of the Virgin Mary. The women of the sestiere put on their best clothes and talked while the men stood outside and drank large quantities of wine. On the last day there was an extensive water procession. While a service was being held in the very east of the city, in the episcopal church of San Pietro di Castello , the two contrade equipped six boats (scaule). One carried 40 armed men, another the priests and the bishop, the other four boats each carried three statues of the Virgin, accompanied by women and girls. Together with the two boats from Santa Maria Formosa, the company rowed followed by numerous other boats to the jetty to celebrate a service in San Marco . After that, the golden Dogenschiff joined the procession that went up the Grand Canal until 1250 to Santi Apostoli , then up to the Fontego dei Turchi . From there it went into a smaller canal to Santa Maria Formosa.

The decoration of the boats, houses, paths and the participants became so elaborate that for the first time in 1379 the tax authorities forbade the celebration during the Chioggia war against Genoa in order to save the two contrade the costs. After that, the celebration, which was part of Carnival and dominated by women, was completely changed. The highest organs of power pretended not only to want to fight waste. The aristocratic city regiment could no longer endure the excessive celebrations with their supposedly orgy-like excesses. The otherwise strictly caged women of the upper classes were suddenly to be seen in public and the men were accused of spending too much time watching their processions. For decades, the Council of Ten was supposed to prevent accusations, fights between the young men of the competing contrade or stabbing , whereby the prohibitions became very detailed. It was forbidden to throw apples at Marie or to get too close to the Doge's ship. After 1379 there were no more processions through the city. The participants in the celebration instead stayed in Santa Maria Formosa. There were no more competing contrade and the Marian festival was postponed so as not to be confused with the carnival with its own rules.

The presentation of Saint Mary on November 21st, which was only introduced in 1369/70, now took on the function of the most important Marian festival.

The rivalries between the contrade were channeled more strongly, as two groups of young men with long sticks tried to push their opponents off a bridge and throw them into the water. The social tasks of the contrade were increasingly shifted to brotherhoods and guilds , the political centralized. In the Renaissance , all processions finally took place via St. Mark's Square . The balancing function that the Carnival made possible between the otherwise rather separate social groups, and which thus increased their sense of community, should be geared towards Venice as a whole, less towards the contrade.

overview

The relationship between the islands and the parishes in the Sestiere of San Polo is as follows:

island Area ( ha ) Population (2009) belongs to the
parish
Frari ... 1296 Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
Meloni ... 275 San Silvestro
Nomboli ... 459 Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (formerly San Polo )
San Boldo ... 377 Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
San Cassiano ... 843 San Cassiano
San Polo ... 454 Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (formerly San Polo)
San Silvestro ... 1318 San Silvestro
Sestiere San Polo 34 5022 3 parishes

literature

  • Jason D. Hardgrave: Parishes and Patriarchy. Gender and Boundaries in Late Medieval Venice , in: Viator 41,1 (2010) pp. 251–275.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Karl Julius Beloch : Population history of Italy , Vol. 3: The population of the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Milan, Piedmont, Genoas, Corsicas and Sardinia. The total population of Italy , Berlin 1961, section VII: The Republic of Venice and G. Gallicciolli: Delle memorie venete antiche, profane ed ecclesiastiche , Venice 1795, vol. 2, p. 185.
  2. ↑ Their residential areas are listed for the years 1719/1750, 1762, 1796 by Oliver Thomas Domzalski: Political careers and power distribution in the Venetian nobility (1646–1797). Sigmaringen 1996, Appendix 1, pp. A2 to A7. Information on the number of Venetian nobili residing in the individual sestieri for the years 1624, 1761, 1766-70, 1771-75, 1780, 1790 by Volker Hunecke: The Venetian nobility at the end of the republic 1646-1797. Demographics, family, household. Tübingen 1995 p. 399, table 20.
  3. ↑ Donald E. Queller : The Venetian Family and the Estimo of 1379, in: Bernhard S. Bachrach, David Nicholas (ed.): Law, Custom and the Social Fabric in Medieval Europe. Essays in Honor of Bryce Lyon , Kalamazoo 1990, 185–209, here: p. 188.
  4. ↑ Élisabeth Crouzet-Pavan : "Sopra le acque salse". Escpaces, pouvoir et société à Venise à la fin du Moyen Age , 2 vols., Rome 1992, vol. 1, p. 569.
  5. ↑ Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana , Cronaca Veneta attribuita a Gasparo Zancaruolo, dalle origini della città al 1466, Vol. 2 dall'elezione di Marin Falier a. 1354 - (c. 695) "A di 26. Decembrio MCDXLVI., Copy of the Codex Braidense (VII, 49-50) from 1519 from the 18th century, It. VII 1274-1275 (9274-9275), f. 515r -516r.
  6. ↑ This and the following according to Edward Muir: Civic Ritual in Renaissance Venice , Princeton University Press 1981, pp. 135–181.