The making and remaking of Calcio Storico Fiorentino, from fascist civic festival to intangible cultural heritage

Calcio Storico Fiorentino (CSF) is the reenactment of a sixteenth-century ball game, ‘calcio’, and in particular of the ‘Siege Match’ of 1530, played by the soldiers of the Republic of Florence to encourage themselves and to mock the besieging troops of Charles V, who wanted to take control of the city. Current celebrations include a parade in Renaissance costumes and a calcio tournament, which consists of a radically violent ball game. Since its ‘reinvention’ in 1930 with the support of the fascist leaders, CSF has been a contested field for the expression and definition of masculinity and ‘imagined’ Florentine identities, and a useful piece of heritage for different political purposes. In the 1930s, it served to consolidate political consensus and reinforce fascist rhetoric. After the Second World War, CSF was reintroduced by the communist leaders to promote tourism and create sociality in a period of reconstruction. The narrative of the Siege Match was thus reversed, becoming a symbol of Florentines’ self-determination and resistance to authoritarian power. In recent years, the commercialization of Florence’s cultural heritage has changed the social conformation of the city, forcing most of its inhabitants to move to the outskirts. Consequently, CSF has become a symbolic way of resisting what is perceived as an ‘invasion’ of the most iconic part of the city, the heritagized historic centre. Based on long-term archival and ethnographic research, this article analyzes the stages of these developments, and the changing but continuous relationships between Calcio Storico and the city.