SWORDS AND FIGURANTS IN TRADITIONAL HISTORICAL COSTUMES

On Saturday 22nd  June, if you visit the beautiful village of Colle Santa Lucia you will have the chance to encounter figurants walking around the town and the Adventure Outdoor Fest info point wearing historical costumes and ancient swords.

 

I will tell you why:  the province of Belluno, from the 15th to the first half of the 17th century, was renomated to forge sword blades which armed armies from Scotland to the Far East and in particular the militia of the Serenissima. Specimens of these blades are exhibited in the most important museums in the world.

 

The Fursil mines were very well-known as their iron ore, rich in manganese, was particularly suitable for forging blades which were hard to melt but not easyily chipped.  The period of the swords was a phase of maximum development of the Alto Veneto. In those times, the skill of the Belluno artisans excelled in Europe. Especially famous were the spadari masters such as Pietro da Formicano, Giandonato Ferara (brother of the most popular Andrea) and the Giorgiutti brothers. Of the latter, two splendid two-handed swords can still be admired today in the Sala d'Armi of the Council of Ten at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice.

The quality of the swords forged by these renomated masters was so high that many kings of the time wanted them in their personal collections to increase their prestige.

Surely Andrea Ferara was the best known among the Belluno sword masters. He was very active in the second half of the sixteenth century renowned for his elegant‘three-way’ hilted swords and for the creation of the first most famous basket-hilted sword, the Schiavona.

The Schiavona was the most notorius sword in the Venetian Republic during its last two centuries of history but it ended its service with the Napoleonic occupation of the Serenissima.  

 

During the day it will be possible to join guided tours to the Fursil Mines.