Everyone to the market in the field. In Siena, as in the fourteenth century, between crafts and agri-food products
SIENA – After the stop imposed by the health emergency, in Siena, we return to the square with the Mercato nel Campo. In the Conchiglia until this evening at 8 pm it will be possible to walk, browse and shop among the 145 stalls of agri-food and artisanal products. And it will be like taking a dip in the fourteenth century, where everything was born, suddenly plunging into the past.
“A successful bet – said the councilor for tourism and commerce Alberto Tirelli – A one-of-a-kind event which, season after season, has become an eagerly awaited event, recording large numbers of visitors and which, for this year, responds more than ever to the need to restart and return to normality “.
Among the agri-food stalls there is really something for all tastes and palates: sweets, sweets and chocolate, oil, wine and liqueurs; but also fruit and vegetables, truffles, bread, pasta and flour. Without forgetting the meats, cheeses, spices and jams with honey. Many curiosities also among the craft stalls: from Christmas decorations to hats, scarves and stoles; from artistic handicraft ceramics to natural cosmetics, furniture, fabrics and upholstery up to publishing.
Come to the fourteenth century. At the beginning it takes place in the square a market daily of foodstuffs and artifacts of common use for the home and for work is in the part of the pavement that currently goes from the alley of Sanpaolo towards via del Porrione.
The most important market, called the ‘big’ market, however, was the one that took place on Saturdays. This integrated the daily market and opened to the participation of many direct producers from the countryside, of small breeders and livestock merchants, of many food retailers, merchants and artisans of leather, textile, glass, iron products. , of terracotta, as well as numerous second-hand merchandise dealers.
The Mercato nel campo returns to Siena, 145 in the shadow of the Palazzo
At the beginning of the fourteenth century the growing number of sellers had made the market so crowded that a better distribution of the sales sectors was necessary. Thus, the Office of Abundance, in charge of supplying the city, defined a new organization of the spaces by establishing that the various arts that were sold in the Campo be sorted into separate and distinct spaces; the benches must be arranged in separate straight lines with an internal corridor suitable for the passage of at least 8 fathoms (about 4 meters). The food sellers arranged in the space of the square towards San Martino, the fish in the area where the water flows (near Fonte Gaia), the point for weighing flour and cereals in the space in front of the Palazzo Pubblico.
There were many professions exercised in the Mercato del Campo: from Treccola, the reseller of various foodstuffs, to the meat stalls; from fishmongers to pizzicaioli, passing from winemakers to granaries to coppai (sellers of terracotta jars) and wool makers.
Today, those atmospheres, those colors and those scents, once again come back to life in the magic of Piazza del Campo.