Glauco Luchetti Gentiloni himself designed the new Contesa in 1979, entrusting the realization of the first event, held on August 10, 1980, to the creativity of a small group of motivated organizers gathered under the name “Società dello Stivale.”
On the festival day, a procession formed by the costume groups of the districts will parade through the town streets, pulling the cart with the straw effigy to the town square. In the evening, the event will take place in the presence of the local citizens, authorities, and invited representatives from Osimo.
THE HISTORICAL FACT
When continuous border clashes disrupted relations between Filottrano and Osimo, during a punitive expedition in which the Osimo forces captured horses and oxen and took many prisoners, the people of Filottrano managed to capture an enemy soldier. While fleeing, he left behind the boot for which he had been held captive. The boot thus became a symbol of revenge against the Osimo people. Every year, the local youth paraded a straw effigy wearing the historic boot through the streets of the town, which was then burned amid jests and mockery. The tradition was suspended after a few years, until in 1979 the “Società dello Stivale” decided to organize the first historical reenactment of the Contesa.
The Idea of Glauco Luchetti Gentiloni
The motivations behind the reenactment (in the reform document of November 24, 1468, it is written that “the men of Montefilottrano have decided to live in peace”) gradually lost their initial strength and faded in the collective memory of Filottrano, which had grown indifferent toward the “contesa.”
But blood is not water. The blue blood running through the veins of Engineer Count Glauco Luchetti Gentiloni reignited the passion for a historical reenactment in which—true or not—his ancestors were involved: the descendants of Metonius, from whom the “Gentiloni” of Filottrano originated.
The seven districts compete in a relay race for the privilege of setting the effigy on fire with a torch passed between the athletes during the race. After the burning, which removes any trace of animosity, the representative of Filottrano reads a message of friendship from the November 24, 1468 reform to the representative of Osimo. This is followed by a communal toast and the awarding of the Bronze Boot to the winning district.
Luchetti Gentiloni’s project includes a series of plans indicating:
- The route of the procession and the relay;
- Details of the effigy and the cart;
- Sketches of the poster and the parchment.
The study, which the author dedicates “for Filottrano – always,” is completed with the rules of the contesa, the description of the districts, and the instructions, routes, procedures, and timing of the historical procession.
The Procession
Ladies and knights, villagers and nobles, maidens and pages, soldiers and dignitaries owe much to Tina Tittarelli’s costumes, which allow them, on a summer afternoon, to escape everyday life and feel like actors on an almost cinematic set, rediscovered with each edition.
The awareness that the pride displayed in every contesa is not mere pose but authentic—rooted in a distinguished past of deaths and resurrections—is the main reason why participants continue to amaze spectators who watch from the castle.
The gonfalon and Osimo banners, along with their guards, are part of the historical procession, supervised by halberdiers and gunners who precede them, and the armigers and archers of San Michele who follow.
While trumpets and drums provide the sounds of the parade, the flag-wavers precede the “Effigy,” lifted on a cart pulled by the patience of a horse and its handler.
The order and choreography of the procession are entrusted to the Captain of the People, the deus ex machina of the event, whose share of glory must be contested with the Master of the Contesa, who directs the relay and the districts—the essential element of the entire historical reenactment.
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