Орта ғасырлық шайқастардағы қалалық мерекелік көлік (Орта ғасырлық шайқастардағы қалалық мерекелік көлік)

Large chariot used in medieval battles

A carroccio (; ) was a large four wheeled wagon bearing the city signs around which the militia of the medieval communes gathered and fought. It was particularly common among the Lombard, Tuscan and, more generally, northern Italian municipalities. Later its use spread even outside Italy. It was the symbol of municipal autonomy. Priests celebrated Mass at the altar before the battle, and the trumpeters beside them encouraged the fighters to the fray. Defended by selected troops, paved with the colors of the municipality, it was generally pulled by oxen and carried an altar, a bell (called "martinella"), the heraldic signs of the city and a mast surmounted by a Christian cross. In peace time it was kept in the main church of the city to which it belonged. In battle the carroccio was surrounded by the bravest warriors in the army as the carroccio guard, and it served both as a rallying point and as the palladium of the city's honour; its capture by the enemy was regarded as an irretrievable defeat and humiliation.

The carroccio, which has Lombard origins, was initially used by Arimannia as a war chariot. Its function became purely symbolic, with the addition of the cross, of the city signs, of the altar and with its preservation in the main church of the city between 1037 and 1039 due to the Archbishop of Milan Aribert's use in one of the sieges that Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor did on several occasions in Milan. The carroccio therefore, from a military means, became a purely political instrument. The carroccio was introduced by Heribert (Ariberto) for use as the military insignia of Milan. His many supporters adopted and spread the use of the insignia. It was soon adopted in Lombardy, Tuscany and Rome where it signified a militia aligned toward a defence of the Church. Its diffusion extended to other Lombard cities, but this cannot be explained as a pure reproduction of the Milanese carroccio. The first document cited contains information on the need to make an iron shield to be placed in the choir of the church, which was located near the carroccio, with the lighting of a votive fire fed by a pound of oil. The carroccio was the protagonist in the battle of Legnano on 29 May 1176, during which it was defended, according to legend, by the Company of Death led by Alberto da Giussano, a fictional character who actually appeared only in literary works of the following century. According to the legend, during the fight, three doves, out of the burials of the saints Sisinnio, Martirio and Alessandro at the basilica of San Simpliciano in Milan, rested on the carroccio causing the flight of Frederick Barbarossa. Instead, according to the real historical facts, the municipal infantry arranged a decisive resistance around the carroccio which allowed the remaining part of the Lombard League army led by Guido da Landriano, to arrive from Milan and defeat Frederick Barbarossa in the famous clash of Legnano. Today it is difficult to establish precisely the exact location of this carroccio to the current topography of Legnano. One of the chronicles of the clash, the Cologne Annals, contain important information: This decision later proved to be strategically incorrect, given that Frederick Barbarossa came instead from Borsano, or from the opposite side, which forced the municipal troops to resist around the carroccio with the escape road blocked by the Olona.) or of the Legnanese quarter of "Costa di San Giorgio", since in another part of the neighbouring areas it is not possible to identify another depression with the characteristics suitable for its defence. Considering the last hypothesis, the final clash could also have taken place on part of the territory now belonging to the contrade of Sant'Ambrogio and San Magno (between the quartier of "Costa di San Giorgio" and the Olona, a steep slope was later included in the Castello park) and to the municipality of San Giorgio su Legnano. The carroccio of the Lombard League was captured by the imperials in 1237 during the battle of Cortenuova, donated to Pope Gregory IX by the emperor Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, and transported to the Palazzo Senatorio in Rome in what is still called the Sala del carroccio ("Room of carroccio"), where the commemorative inscription of the gift is kept made by the emperor to the Roman people. The inscription reads:

Rome, in addition to being the seat of the papacy, was also the capital of a vast empire, and therefore the sending of the carroccio to the city by the emperor had a strong symbolic meaning.

The decline of the carroccio occurred due to the evolution of war tactics. When larger and more manoeuvrable armies began to appear, the municipal infantry were replaced by soldiers of "ventura", who, being mercenaries, lacked emotional ties and belonging to the city. In addition, the carroccio was also used in the Battle of Bouvines in 1214.

In addition to the symbolic value, the carroccio had an important military tactical function. It began to gain military value, especially after the battle of Legnano, where, between the first times in history, the infantry, which was gathered around the carroccio, held the chivalry head. Inside the Siena Cathedral, on the other hand, two large 10–15 m spars are preserved, which traditionally refers to the carroccio, victorious from the battle of Montaperti. In Cremona, at the civic museum, there is a wooden platform that is thought to have belonged to the cart of the wagon taken from the Milanese in 1213 in Castelleone.

Since there are very few surviving remains from medieval times, information on the shape of the carroccio is fragmentary. Alessandro Visconti, in a book from 1945, referring to the chronicler Arnulf of Milan, reports this description:

Two depictions of the carroccio in the Middle Ages reached the 21st century ichnographically. The first is present in the Montauri Chronicles of Siena, and the second in the Chronicle of Giovanni Villani. The two representations are the result of stories by non ocular chroniclers, being the authors of the 14th and 15th centuries, therefore of an era where the presence of the carroccio in everyday life had by then disappeared. The first representation shows only two movable flagpoles, one with the help of the other, while in the second image, where there is a four wheeled cart with a flag, the subject is shown in more detail. The same image of the carroccio is present in a fresco by Stradanus dedicated to the House of Medici, which depicts Piazza della Signoria during the feast of John the Baptist. It is therefore probable that three types of carroccio existed. The first "classic" on the Milanese model, the Tuscan one with two flagpoles (with the carroccio of Florence that presented a bell), and the one widespread in Flanders and Germany, which was a simple cart with a central flagpole. From the description, made by Salimbene di Adam, of the dismantling of the one captured by the Parmesans to the Cremonese during the Battle of Parma in 1248, it can be deduced that there were five parts of the carroccio: four wheels, a platform, the flagpole, the flag and various decorations. The wheels were very large, and were usually painted red in Milan and Florence, white in Parma, and in precious colours not specified in Siena and Padua. The flagpole, according to the description of Bonvesin da la Riva, weighed as much as four men and was usually supported by ropes (certainly that of Milan). In the Chigi codex, the Florentine carroccio presents two flagpoles and the flag, which very often was not fixed to a sidebar, was in precious fabric usually divided into two halved colours, or it was decorated with a cross motif. Unlike in Northern Europe, the representation of the patron saint did not appear on Italian wagons, where it was often depicted as decoration of the front body. In 2000, the original "martinella" of the Battle of Legnano was identified. It was kept on the bell tower of the hermitage of Sant'Alberto di Butrio of Ponte Nizza, in the province of Pavia. In the same year of the discovery, it was paraded during the historical procession of the Palio di Legnano.

The specialis magister, who took care of the maintenance of the carroccio, was paid by the municipality, for his service, 8 soldi a day. Giacomo da Lentini, an imperial official of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, dealt with the carroccio in the song Ben m'è venuto, which is a poetic piece of love inspired by the poems of the troubadours and probably composed before the battle of Cortenuova (between 1233 and 1237).

Since the carroccio is a signum, in modern times it has become a symbol of ideas, hopes and different meanings, very often as anti tyrannical propaganda during the period of the Signorias, up to Romanticism and the Risorgimento, where it became the symbol of the struggle against the foreign occupation. Important promoters of these ideas were Massimo d'Azeglio, Giovanni Berchet, Amos Cassioli, Francesco Hayez. Giosuè Carducci and Giovanni Pascoli recalled, with the Canzone di Legnano and Canzone del carroccio, the splendors of medieval Italian comunes, a concept that was later taken up also by the writings of Gabriele D'Annunzio.

The political party of the Lega Nord is historically known as il carroccio, in reference to the Battle of Legnano to which the Lega Nord symbolism refers.