Symbols

ST GEORGE'S FESTIVAL

Fires are the remainings of the innumerable pagan propitiatory rituals of springtime. These rituals of purification through fire are typical of the agrarian cultures. As is the sun with its rays, so is the fire with its flames the symbol of the fertilizing action, purifying and illuminating. The practice of jumping across the fire acquired the function of a gesture to ward off bad luck, able to dismiss any negative influence: spells, jinx and evil eye, misfortunes that beat down inexorably not only on harvests and economic activities in general, but also on love life and health.

Some days before the festival people used to pile up faggots of branches, to be burned on the evening of the 23rd of April, at the agreed time. Then started a real competition to jump across the flames that rose through smoke and sparks. Boys, both younger and not, jumped across the fires organized in the suburbs ... and all was followed by the amused eyes of the villagers, who didn't disdain the offer of a glass of good wine.

THE FILIPPESCHI AND THE MONALDESCHI FAMILIES

"Come and behold Montecchi and Cappelletti, Monaldi and Fillippeschi, careless man! Those sad already, and these doubt-depressed!" (Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Purgatorio, canto VI)

Ficulle, the ancient medieval village of Etruscan origin, it dominates the valley below. Its towers, the remainings of the ancient walls, the dominion of the valley below, all these elements let us imagine the prominent military role of the ancient castle of Ficulle. A land that during Middle Ages was a desirable borderland, sought-after by the Monaldeschi and the Filippeschi families.

Coats of arms of the Orvietan families of the Monaldeschi (Ghibelline) and the Filippeschi (Guelf)