The Giostra di Cesena goes well beyond the borders of the Malatesta city and in view of the eagerly awaited event next September, when it will return with its splendor in Piazza del Popolo, it was presented yesterday, Thursday 6 June, by the Association promoter at the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrade, a peripheral body of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs present in all embassies, which has the task of promoting the Italian cultural heritage in its various expressions through initiatives that can on the one hand present the multiple souls of reality Italian and on the other offer opportunities for meeting and dialogue between the local cultural reality and the Italian one, with the aim of mutual valorisation resulting from the interaction.
The director of the organization Roberto Cincotta hosted the president of the “Giostra di Cesena” Association Daniele Molinari and a small delegation from Cesena, made up of nine people. During the event, which was particularly well attended, Daniele Molinari illustrated the history and the different phases of recovery of this important chivalric event organized in a substantially uninterrupted way from 1465 (when Pope Paul II granted it to the city as a perpetual privilege) to 1838, probably the last in the world in continuity since the Renaissance. The Giostra was held in Piazza Maggiore (today del Popolo) preceded by a historical or allegorical procession, and the winner received the Palio (i.e. a painted piece of fine fabric) and a prize of 25 pure gold florins paid by the Apostolic Chamber. The city considered it as its special prerogative, a distinctive trait, so much so that it was offered as a gift to distinguished guests: papal legates, ambassadors, princes, dukes or queens.
The conference, held by Daniele Molinari and Alessandro Pieri, was dedicated to the history of the Giostra and gave visiting Cesena residents the opportunity to talk about the territory of Cesena, and the Savio Valley, among tourist attractions and landscape and food and wine excellences. Ample space was reserved for the Malatestiana Library and the Nuti Hall: in fact, the audience was shown a short film subtitled in Serbian language dedicated to Malatesta Novello, his cultural legacy to the city and the manuscript codes, still today, kept inside of the Malatestiana.
The afternoon of study and in-depth study ended with a nice tribute to our land by a violinist from the Belgrade Conservatory who reproduced “Romagna mia” for the occasion.
Carousel 2024. This year the carousel will be held in the period between Sunday 8 and Sunday 15 September, with a rich program of shows, exhibitions, historical conferences, guided tours, spaces for children, procession and carousel. To make viewing the carousel more comfortable, this year the installation of stands for the public is being studied, which will be mounted only after verification of all safety and sustainability conditions and which will not only make the show more enjoyable, but will contribute to make the scenography even more spectacular. The installation of the grandstands will bring forward the preparation of the competition field to Friday 13 September, but will allow the creation of further moments of entertainment and equestrian performances.
