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Fairs and Markets

Lazio’s gastronomic sagre—fairs usually dedicated to one particular food—as we know them today, are a fairly recent phenomenon and a favorite of a public ever in search of typical foods and typical everything else. Nevertheless, some of these have their roots in the ancient fairs and markets that were periodically held up and down the Italian peninsula in front of temples, where people converged from far and wide. In Lazio, in fact, the archaeological evidence for such spots is plentiful.

At first, markets must have been held once a year, open just one or two days, almost always near monasteries or other places having to do with worship. Very probably in Italy, but also in France, England, and the non-Muslim part of Spain, fairs and markets and the numerous privileges (licenses to sell) granted beginning in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries must have been much more common than sources tell us.⁸⁷

By the tenth century, the markets were already quite common, and that is when the religious and secular signories began to provide security for the areas where they were held. This was needed especially for agricultural commerce in territories that were scantily populated and far from the larger towns. Such was the case of the isolated Abbey of Grottaferrata, which for centuries was the center of a very important market fair, still on maps in the 1600s. And for security, the authorities considered that the fairs should last no longer than two or three days.⁸⁸

One of the most important ancient fairs was held at Praeneste, present-day Palestrina, a sacred city in Roman times strategically positioned between the Etruscan and Greek civilizations. Destroyed by the Romans, who rebuilt it and dedicated it to the goddess Fortuna, Palestrina had a great temple (brought to light by the bombs of World War II), which received offerings and gifts for the goddess from the entire Mediterranean. It was Christianity that abolished this divinity and replaced her with Saint Agapitus, today patron saint of Palestrina, martyred in the city’s amphitheater and celebrated now in the holidays of mid-August.

But by far the most important of the fairs of central Italy was the annual market held at Farfa, in the province of Rieti. The great imperial abbey, longa manus of the emperor behind the papacy, had reached its maximum splendor in the sixth and seventh centuries. It survived for centuries and the beautiful sixteenth-century basilica and the medieval town center where the market was held, restored in the first decades of the twentieth century, can still be seen today.

The abbots of Farfa, who in the High Middle Ages extended the dominion of the abbey over the entire Sabina, had especially promoted the growing of olives. Farfa was served by a river port on the Tiber and managed directly by the abbots, who had their own fleet, which could trade with immunity from imperial taxes. The Farfa monks also made their abbey a splendid cultural center: In the valley nestled among the hills they built a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, rich in gold ornaments and gems. They surrounded it with five basilicas, an imperial palace, and numerous buildings, colonnades, and porticoes. It had all been protected by solid walls and towers that reached the top of the hill above—at least according to the description by one of its abbots of the time. The extremely wealthy abbey possessed territories not only in Sabina, but also in the Marca of Fermo in the Marche, and even in northern Italy. These were territories granted to vassals or managed directly by the abbots. Its already famous library grew richer with precious codices, today in the Vatican Library. Destroyed by the Saracens, but also by the so-called barbarians, the abbey was rebuilt several times, but by the year 1000 had already begun its decline. Nevertheless, the important annual market, fiera franca (duty free, exempt from the taxes vendors owed the Camera Apostolica,⁸⁹ feudal lord, comune, or competent corporations), continued for centuries to attract the trade of the entire vast region.

Two other important fairs were held in the area of the Castelli Romani: the most famous was at Grottaferrata, held on the abbey walls, followed by that of the Madonna di Galloro in Ariccia.⁹⁰

These crowded fairs could last as long as ten days. Not surprisingly, the temporary liberalization of trade attracted a huge number of people from beyond the surrounding territories to the fairs, which became crowded with a heterogeneous multitude of merchants (especially Jews);⁹¹ convicts, who could not be arrested during the fiere franche; peasants; mountebanks; jugglers; and also brigands. Makeshift camps multiplied along the roads, in the piazzas, and in front of the doors of the churches to accommodate the crowds.

Often the fair and its related religious holiday was the occasion for a plenary indulgence, and thus the cathedral or abbey church managed to cover its annual quota of candles with the donations of the faithful. Goods were sold on the piazzas and side streets, set out on sawhorses and improvised boards or on the ground if they were farm products. The livestock market, however, was usually held outside the walls of the abitato.

The fairs were therefore also important opportunities for socialization that was normally prohibited elsewhere. Often the organization was in the hands of the local confraternities,⁹² each of which took responsibility for the elaborate processions, always followed by fireworks. Every so often, races by men or animals were also organized. These were invariably followed by ruckus and disorder that frequently resulted in injuries, even though it was prohibited to carry knives or similar weapons at the fairs.

During the fairs, the roads were filled with the voices of hawkers and companies of players, while wine flowed like rivers in the wineshops. These and other public houses were filled to the maximum. After Pantagruelian eating and drinking came gambling and card games, such as bassetta, biribissi, and zecchinetta, which tradition says were brought to Rome by the Lanzichenecchi (imperial mercenaries) and remained very popular into the eighteenth century. But the games that interested the people most were the various contests borrowed from the Romans, among which the favorites were the race of the barberi, that of horses and donkeys, and the race of men and boys. A very popular contest that prompted general hilarity was the one in which women hoisted a large copper pot full of water onto their heads on a coroglia⁹³ and were supposed to carry it at a run without spilling. But the women could also participate in the spindle contest, in which the winner was the contestant who could spin the longest thread from raw wool without breaking it. The men could show off their skills in other contests, the most common of which was the scifa, wherein a large rectangular plate used for pasta (the scifa) was suspended from a cord attached to a ring. Riders would attempt to run through the ring at a gallop.

We find nothing of all this today in the modern small-town fairs in Lazio, even though many towns put on parades and games in costume in imitation of the old traditions, often organized by the local Pro Loco⁹⁴ or by local confraternities.⁹⁵ Until the 1960s, however, the sagre were mainly a market where the peasants sold their wares, even if very little money actually circulated and transactions were often by barter: salt for eggs, cheese for some other product needed for domestic subsistence.

Today sagre and fairs, their ancient peasant origins forgotten, along with the subsistence economy that made them necessary, are a Sunday outing for families, with tastings and with displays of typical products not always locally made. Many of these are dedicated to a single particular product that over time has been established in the area. Among the most famous is the strawberry festival in late May and early June at Nemi, in the Alban Hills just southeast of Rome. Today, the women and girls still wear the old costumes of the fragolare, or “strawberry women,” and parade through the town’s streets in a lively and beautiful procession. Finally, during the first days of October, Marino holds sagra in honor of the god Bacchus, with the famous fountains of wine, which still today attract throngs of tourists and the curious from near and far.