The city of Siena will apply to add its Palio to the UNESCO Representative List of
Non-Material Cultural Heritage, those which, unlike an architectural site, are
events or traditions that symbolize a populace or civilization.
Citing the annual competition as a patrimony of the
human race, Siena claims, is in line with the ‘Convention for the
safeguarding of the UNESCO Non-Material Cultural Heritage of October 17, 2003.
Siena’s historic center is already a UNESCO architectural and historic
heritage site.Local officials in Siena will now
seek to convince UNESCO of the value of Palio as an intangible heritage.
The city maintains that its Palio represents an
expression of the historic traditions of a people in a way unparalleled in Italy and much of the world, and is rich in religious,
spiritual and civic meaning.
It calls the Palio an expression of democratic unity
in its wide variety of participants; a ‘monument’ that must be constantly
maintained, especially considering the horses without which Palio would not
exist, and the traditional values whose survival rely on careful passage to
future generations.
