The 17 contrade

The Legend of la BEFANA

Passion of Christ on Palm Sunday

The Grassina Passion Play

Gothic Dream

The Race or Bravio of St. Reparata

Wish upon a star

Halloween

Bacco Artigiano at Rufina

And who was St. Zenobius?

A home from home through the year

More Tuscan history

The Scottish market

An 18th century law that brought the end of the death penalty

Tuscany celebrates itself!
[Susan Glasspool]

The Feast of the Tuscany is a recent festivity that has been officially held on November 30th since the year 2000. It was introduced to celebrate the ideals of peace, justice and liberty and marks the anniversary of the important Penal Reform Bill or Leopoldine Code, created by Pietro Leopoldo of Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany between 1765 and 1790.

Among other things, the code, inspired by the theories of Cesare Beccaria, abolished the death penalty (described by Pietro Leopoldo as barbaric) for the very first time (November 30th 1786) and ordered that all the gallows in Tuscany be immediately dismantled and destroyed. It was soon copied elsewhere in Europe.

Highly intelligent and a clever organiser, Pietro Leopoldo was the first Lorraine Grand Duke and introduced many social reforms, improving trade, communications and agriculture.

Celebrations start in the afternoon with the historic pageant of the Florentine Republic from Palagio di Parte Guelfa to the Tuscan Regional Council in Via Cavour. Here it is joined by the authorities before returning to Piazza Signoria where a bonfire is lit to symbolise death at the stake. Then, at 5pm, all the church bells throughout Tuscany are rung and band music played in the squares. In Florence the great bell of the Marzocco in the Bargello also tolls, an event normally reserved only for very solemn occasions.


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