The Marino Wine Festival ('a Sagra by antonomasia in Marino dialect) is a well-known traditional festival that occurs every first Sunday in October in Marino, a town in the province of Rome.
It was established in 1925 on the initiative of poet Leone Ciprelli and has been regularly organized every year since then. The Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro granted the event the title of Sagra, with which only a few other similar events in Italy could boast.. Its roots, however, go back to earlier historical events: coinciding with the secular festival is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated to commemorate the victory of the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571.
History
Origins of the religious festival
On October 7, 1571, the combined forces of Spain, the Papal States, the Republic of Genoa, the Republic of Venice, the Duchy of Savoy, and the Knights Hospitaller defeated the Ottoman naval forces commanded by Muezzinzade Ali Pasha at the Battle of Lepanto on the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece. The Christians, united for the occasion in the Holy League, were commanded by John of Austria, while the papal contingent was led by Marcantonio Colonna, lord of several Lazio fiefdoms including Marino.
After the victory, the Christian commanders returned to their own nations: Marcantonio Colonna landed at Gaeta and immediately went to Marino, where his wife Felicia Orsini and children were staying at Palazzo Colonna. The victorious commander's entry into Marino took place on November 4, 1571, and his stay lasted until December 4, the date of his triumphal entry into Rome that Pope Pius V wished to grant the admiral.
The expedition, which ended victoriously, had been placed under the protection of Our Lady of the Rosary depicted in the Standard of Lepanto, now preserved in Gaeta Cathedral where it was deposited by Marcantonio Colonna at the time of his landing. Therefore, Pope Pius V proclaimed Our Lady of the Rosary the patron saint of the Papal States and ordered that in all localities subject to his temporal rule the solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary be celebrated on October 7 each year. This practice, certainly encouraged by the Colonna family, also took over in Marino. Marcantonio also deposited in the fief several war relics taken from the Ottomans, which were later deposited in the Basilica of St. Barnabas: today only one Turkish shield that survived the French plunder of 1798 remains.Antonia Lucarelli, La Basilica di San Barnaba in Marino, in Memorie marinesi, pp. 45-55.
With the establishment of the Sagra dell'Uva (Grape Festival) in 1924 and the fixing of the date of the event to the first Sunday in October, de facto in Marino the religious feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is generally celebrated on a different date from the one set by the Catholic Church, unless the first Sunday in October falls on the very 7th.
Origins of the secular festival
Wine production in the territory of Marino has its roots already in the Roman age: ancient authors knew and appreciated much of the white wine produced in the area of the Alban Hills under the name of Albanum, from the name of the ancient city of Alba Longa, a legendary mother-city of Rome that stood precisely on the shores of Lake Albano. During the Middle Ages and then in the modern age viticulture represented the main source of employment in Marino and its territory, as well as in all neighboring municipalities.For a quick history of the links between this area and wine production,
In 1536 Emperor Charles V of Habsburg, visiting Rome, had the opportunity to drink Marino's wine during a banquet, and according to chronicles he expressed appreciation for it.Giuseppe Tomassetti, La Campagna Romana antica, medioevale e moderna - Marino, vol. IV p. 176.
The people of Marino were very attached to viticulture, so much so that on several occasions they turned to the protection of Our Lady of the People, a miraculous thirteenth-century effigy preserved in the Basilica of St. Barnabas, to save the countryside from hailstorms or untimely rains.Girolamo Torquati, Della prodigiosa figura di Maria SS del Rosario conservata nella Basilica di San Barnaba in Marino, p. 14. Even in 1611 the Community in an extraordinary assembly on February 2 chose to adopt as its patron saint "His Divine Majesty" St. Barnabas, so that he would protect the fief from some continuous hailstorms that had occurred in the previous three years..
At the beginning of the 20th century the idea arose to create a festivity to sponsor the product of the Marinese vineyards and to attract visitors to the city from Rome: transportation had been greatly facilitated with the completion of the Rome-Albano railroad in 1889; the gradual completion of the Roman Castles Tramways, which connected extensively almost all the localities of the Roman Castles with the capital, could only benefit the typical out-of-town tourism of the Romans.
Following a serious production crisis, caused by a series of natural disasters, the municipal administration thought in 1904 to draw attention to the local wine with a major event: the Feste Castromenie. The festivities took place between September 11 and October 10, 1904;Vittorio Rufo, Dania Fanasca, Valerio Rufo, Una Storia in Comune: Marino nel Regno d'Italia 1870-1926, Marino 2010. it does not seem that they were repeated in the following years, until the Roman poet of Marinese origin Leone Ciprelli conceived the Sagra dell'Uva, in 1925.Leone Ciprelli, an anagram of Ercole Pellini, was the son of Gaetano Pellini and Barbara De Marzi, both from Marino. Ugo Onorati, Leone Ciprelli poeta e drammaturgo romanesco, in Strenna dei Romanisti, 2003.
1920s
The Celebration Committee in charge of organizing the first Sagra was chaired by Luigi Capri Cruciani, who also offered much of the wine distributed from the fountains at 7 p.m. on Sunday, October 4, 1925. Among the events of the first edition were a horse race organized along Via Castrimeniense, a monumental lighting system with colored lights and the election of the Grand Magistrate of Grapes, who was in charge of choosing the best bunch. At 6 p.m. themed floats paraded..
During the second edition, on Sunday, October 3, 1926, the Queen of the Grape Harvest was elected for the first time, in San Barnaba Square, in a fashion somewhat similar to a modern beauty contest; the parade of floats was attended by actor Bruto Castellani. The I Concorso Poetico Musicale (First Musical Poetry Contest) was also held, with the jury presided over by the Roman poet Trilussa. The 1926 edition coincided with the celebrations of the seventh centenary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, which were being held in nearby Albano Laziale: neither the Albano nor the Marino authorities agreed to move their respective events.
The third edition, on Sunday, October 2, 1927, was accompanied by unfavorable weather: however, the president of the Festival Committee, Barnaba Ingami, informed the press that "the fountains of Marino spout wine even under water." Since the mayor of London, Sir Rowland Blades, was visiting Rome, the people of Marino invited him to see the Sagra, declaring themselves willing to replicate the "miracle of the fountains" the following Tuesday. However, Sir Rowland did not travel to Marino.
On the occasion of the fourth edition, on Sunday, October 7, 1928, the abbot-parish priest Monsignor Guglielmo Grassi decided to bring in the religious procession for the first time also the Turkish shield kept in the Basilica of St. Barnabas, spoils of the Battle of Lepanto.. The same edition of the Sagra dates back to a disagreement between podestà Ugo Gatti and the abbot-parish priest: the podestà demanded that the scene of the supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii be repeated a second time so that the late Istituto Luce film studio could film it: Monsignor Grassi refused.
In the fifth edition, the historical costume procession was held for the first time, on the initiative of Leone Ciprelli. In the newspaper La Tribuna, an anonymous article first polemicized the damage that could occur to the 17th-century fountain of the Four Moors, annually stifled by plasterboard installations..
Scholar Ugo OnoratiSee among others Ugo Onorati, Leone Ciprelli, Strenna dei Romanisti, 2003. has shown that in these years, roughly between 1926 and 1936, the Marinese festival was the second heart of Roman music, after the great event of San Giovanni. Through the promotion of Leone Ciprelli, the poetic-musical contests organized in Marino during the days of the Sagra attracted the attention of the greatest exponents of dialect poetry and music, from Trilussa and Petrolini to Romolo Balzani and Giuseppe Micheli..
1930s
On September 28, 1930, by order of the central fascist government, a Grape Festival was celebrated in all municipalities in Italy. In Marino, this occasion was only a preview of the traditional Sagra that was held on Sunday, October 5. For the occasion, the first Wine Shop in Italy was opened on the ground floor premises of Palazzo Colonna..
For the 1931 Sagra, Il Piccolo calculated a turnout of nearly 50,000 people.. On the occasion of the 1932 Sagra, the Turkish shield preserved in the Basilica of San Barnaba was once again carried in procession.. On the occasion of the ninth edition of the Sagra, on Sunday, October 1, 1933, the Ferrovie dello Stato and the Roman Castles tramways granted the application of the reduced popular fare for the routes between Rome and Marino.
On Sunday, October 6, 1934, for the eleventh edition of the Sagra, the EIAR, the state radio station, declared that it had installed some microphones in Marino to broadcast the various stages of the festival.. In 1936, due to the Ethiopian War, the Sagra festivities took place in a subdued manner and were ignored by the national press. In compensation, the Sagras of the following years became a kind of showcase for the autarky imposed by the fascist regime. In 1940, for the sixteenth edition of the Sagra, the last one celebrated in grand style under the fascist regime, nearly 2,000 liters of wine were poured from the fountains.
1940s
During the difficult years of the war, the Sagra celebrations were extremely limited due to World War II. Marino was hit several times by aerial bombardment and shelling, starting with the devastating bombing on February 2, 1944. Palazzo Colonna and the fountain of the Four Moors were completely destroyed by the bombs, and the basilica of San Barnaba was severely damaged. Over two hundred civilians lost their lives in the Anglo-American bombing.
The first post-World War II Sagra, the twenty-first edition, was held on Sunday, October 7, 1945, once again under the supervision of Leone Ciprelli, amid the rubble of war. Many Marinese people wanted to end this tradition, seen as a remnant of the ceased fascist regime, but Ciprelli managed to convince everyone of the goodness of the Sagra, which belonged to no one but the Marinese people..
For the twenty-first Sagra, in 1946, Mayor pro tempore Zaccaria Negroni, Leone Ciprelli and the 49 members of the Festival Committee resumed construction of the plasterboard structures around the fountains from which the wine was to flow.. On Sunday, October 5, 1947, for the twenty-second edition, the Turkish shield was also brought back into precession.
In 1945 the Gotto d'Oro Social Winery had been founded, which at the time had the name "Goccia d'Oro," changed later by analogy with an Apulian winery: from the 1948 Sagra the new institution began to collaborate actively in the organization of the event, distributing wine from the semi-destroyed Four Moors fountain. On the occasion of the 1949 Sagra the scenic arched illuminations located along Corso Trieste made their first appearance.
1950s