The official inauguration of the building dates back to May 30, 1824 sferisterio of Forlì. Gabriele Zelli tells the story: “in the city, since the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was immediately clear, both for the number of practitioners and for the crowd that followed this activity, that it was necessary to equip itself with a specific structure. There was no shortage of discussions, controversies, delays, until in 1823 the matches began to be played in the new facility built outside Porta Cotogni, on the edge of the current Via Corridoni. The city of Forlì did things in a big way so much so that the one built turned out to be one of the largest spheres in Italy (99 meters long and 12 meters wide). Before 1823 the matches were played in what is now Piazza Morgagni and in the courtyard of Palazzo Monsignani in via dei Mille”.
“That of the ball on the bracelet it was a sport that provoked visceral passions throughout Romagna, like football today. It is a discipline that is still played with a ball, but it is a hybrid between tennis and volleyball, therefore unique – says Zelli -. The tradition of this sporting discipline has its roots in classical antiquity and then consolidated in the Renaissance courts. With the construction of the sferisteri, with the codification of the rules, with the organization of the matches and the consequent spread of professionalism, the ball with bracelet rose to the role and importance of a national sport, also acquiring the characteristics of the spectacle as we understand it today.
Of the Forlì sferisterium it should be remembered that the two long sides were the support wall obtained from the walls erected in the fifteenth century raised to reach 12 meters and a lower wall called cordon. The two short sides were intended for spectators, seated on wooden stairs and benches, protected by nets. For those who could afford it, towards Porta Cotogni, there was a loggia-style grandstand. The batsman’s mound was on the north side of the pitch. Already in 1823 some important events took place there, so much so that in what was probably the first demonstration of ball with bracelet in the new facility the champion Carlo Didimi from Treia, province of Macerata, set the record for throwing the ball. This record established in Forlì was talked about for decades and today it is remembered in all books on the history of sport, as well as on all the sites dedicated to this discipline.”
“Carlo Didimi (1798 – 1877) was one of the greatest players of the sport, considered by many experts to be the strongest ever as a hitter. He was a true star of the sferisteri, praised by the fans and mythologized in the books that extolled his many victories. So that Giacomo Leopardi in 1821 he dedicated the civil song “To a winner in the ball” to him, where Leopardi evokes the game of ball with the bracelet as a metaphor of the physical abilities and moral and civil virtues of the Italians: the batsman, Didimi, the “magnanimous campion”, warms the arena that from a quiet and elite place becomes, thanks to him, noisy, “echoing”, that is, popular. Carlo Didimi was overpaid. It is said that in 1830 he requested a fee of 600 scudi for participation in a challenge, comparable to the football derbies of great teams of our times, which would be almost 40 thousand euros today. An exorbitant figure considering that a primary school teacher in the Papal State earned a salary of 25 to 60 scudi a year. And he was so unbeatable that at a certain point he was banned from playing on all the pitches in the Marche region, for “manifest superiority”. So, Didimi moved to Forlì, under a false name to be “hired” by a team with a less expensive but secure fee. Except that a fan seeing him play noticed his extraordinary abilities, he understood who he could be and at the sferisterio, in front of everyone, he shouted: “That’s Didimi, the strongest of all!”. Once unmasked, Didimi’s career can be considered over.”
“The practice of the ball on the bracelet continued to have a wide consensus for a long time. On the “Fight of. Class” of 26 June 1913 it is claimed that: ‘The nicest and most attractive of all sports exercises is certainly that of football. On Saturday 28th, Sunday 29th and Monday 30th June 1913 we will have in our sphere the largest of all of Italy, the fortune of admiring and applauding the true champions of the bracelet…’. Singular is the fact that after the First World War this sport, at least in our country, disappeared without a trace, a sign that the definitive overcoming of the nineteenth century is taking place with the end of the Great War and the sporting restart the following year with the birth of Forlì Calcio it was still a ball game. The only difference was that you used your feet to throw the ball”, concludes Zelli .
