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Re Enzo
Bologna's Special 'Guest'
The illegitimate son of Emperor Frederick II ‘Stupor Mundi’, Enzo (c. 1218–1272) was his father's fair-haired boy, a fine soldier and a poet like his father. He married the widow of the King of Sardinia and inherited the title in 1238.
His father appointed him imperial vicar general in Lombardy and General-Legate in Romagna, and he won several victories on the battlefield against his father's papal enemies before being captured at the Battle of Fossalta near Modena. He was brought into the city, following Bologna's carroccio, the ox-drawn 'war cart' possessed by every Italian comune, 'with a handsome body and angelic face, and golden hair down to his belt'.
His entry to Bologna, 24 August, 1249, made such an impression that the anniversary was celebrated thereafter with the Festa de la Porchetta, which involved horse races, fireworks, theatre and porchetta (stuffed roast pork) hurled down from the Palazzo Re Enzo to the crowd waiting in Piazza Maggiore. Ever the party pooper, Napoleon put an end to it when he took Bologna in 1796.
Images by Georges Jansoone, Creative Commons License, PD Art