In 1506 he showed up to hunt the bulls with a porcupine-shaped machine probably to pay homage to the King of France Louis XII, whose coat of arms was a porcupine, protector of the then Lord of Siena Pandolfo Petrucci.
Silver badge with a porcupine crawling on green grass. The animal is surmounted by an ancient fashion crown, two roses of Cyprus, a light blue Savoy knot and the white cross of the Sovereign Military Company of Malt.
White flag decorated with red, black and blue scrollwork.
I sting just for defence.
Acumen.
Smiths
5
Saint Bartholomew Apostle, August 24th (celebrated on the 4th Sunday of August).
Camollia
"Il Leone" (The Lion) - 209, via Camollia.
Via Camollia, 89
via Malta,13
Situated in Via Camollia, It was the old church dedicated to Saints Vincenti and Anastasio, probably built in 1144. After many restoration works and changes, it was given to the contrada in 1849.
Like any other Contrada, the Istrice also had several church locations before the final settlement. In 1623 the people of Camollia gathered in the Magione Chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin (called San Donnino), but the Contrada would have officiated there sporadically. Ascanio Piccolomini in his pastoral visit of 4 September 1670 wrote that the inhabitants of the Contrada, in that church, sang the Office of the Madonna there on holidays and elected the Prior and Camarlengo there.
But it was customary, in the Porcupine as in other Contradas, to meet often in private homes, so much so that in the Statutes of the Contrada di Camollia, dating back to the early 1700s, it was prescribed that the meetings of the Council be held in the Oratory or in the adjoining rooms, considering the resolutions taken elsewhere null and void.
The period in which the Porcupine officiated in the aforementioned church is not documented; it is known that at the beginning of the 18th century he passed into the church of Fontegiusta, to which he donated the cloths won in the Palii and restored the altar where he officiated by spending 50 thalers deriving from the victory of 1709.
In 1733 a conflict arose between the Contrada and the religious authorities of the Church of Fontegiusta (the cause seems to have been the controversial appointment of a priest to celebrate the "Quarantore di adorazione") so that the Porcupine had to find another location; which happened in the same year.
The Curia in fact entrusted him with the Church of San Bartolomeo alla Castellaccia and the Contrada asked for the return of the cloths donated to the Brotherhood of Fontegiusta. This deliberated the restitution because they were "things of little moment and which in the long run are reduced to dust".
In 1788 the Church of San Bartolomeo, now in ruins due to water infiltrations, was returned to the parish of Santo Stefano and the Contrada obtained its current oratory: the church of Saints Vincenzo and Anastasio.
Archbishop Tiberio Borghese allowed that "the church, together with the furniture and furnishings assigned to it, was granted to the inhabitants of said Contrada dell'Istrice, with the weight of maintenance only". On 1st June 1789 the Oratory was solemnly opened to the public. In 1848 the Contrada gained full dominion.
The Oratory of the Sovereign Contrada of the Istrice is located in Via Camollia. According to Sigismondo Tizio the building was consecrated on 29 August 1114. Faluschi reports the names of some rectors of the church from 1308 to 1470. In a memory of the Contrada it is mentioned that the church was used by the Hospital Santa Maria della Scala to give hospitalization for the sick. The church immediately proved cramped since it was only a small room attached to the apsidal part.
The bell tower damaged by the earthquake of 1869 was rebuilt, based on a design by Giuseppe Radicchi, at the expense of the Istriciaioli. In 1874 the Contrada received the organ it owned as a gift from the nobleman Ferdinando Pieri Nerli.
On 20 September 1920 the marble monument to the fallen of the Great War was walled in the facade. In 1975, in agreement with the Superintendency, the Contrada had the two lunettes frescoed outside the church detached and transferred to the Museum. It is the "Madonna and Child with Saints Vincenzo and Anastasio" (16th century) and a "Blessing Christ", even from the early 1200s, in the style of Guido da Siena.
During the improvement and restructuring works of 1983, also financed by the Special Law for Siena, the "terrestrial tomb slab" of the Provençal knight Luigi de Chamenet (died during the plague of 1348) was recovered and transferred from the floor of the church to the center of the sacristy .
The church has a rectangular plan, divided into five bays. In the second bay, on the left, there is a canvas depicting "Santa Marta (or Santa Eligia) who distributes alms", school of Rutilio Manetti, where in the lower left there is an anvil and a hammer that make presume a donation by of the Consorteria dei Fabbri.
On the same side, above the altar dedicated to the Virgin Mary. a painting on panel by Sano di Pietro: "Madonna and Child with Saint Bernardino, Saint Anthony Abate and two praying angels on the sides". Finally a canvas: "Madonna and Child with St. John" from the "workshop" of Alessandro Casolani.
On the opposite side there is another canvas: "Madonna praying on the clouds" painted between 1850 and 1852 by the histrician Giuseppe Faiticher; a "Saint Girolamo" from the school of Astolfo Petrazzi (but the names of Reni and Nasini are also mentioned) and still a polychrome wooden statue of Saint Bartolomeo (Torquato Casciani, 1932). The apse was painted in 1745 by Carlo Amidei (niches with Santi Vincenti and Anastasio).
In the church, in 1513, Bernardino di Betto, known as il Pinturicchio, was buried.
Previous oratori:
- Oratory of the Blessed Virgin Mary annexed to San Pietro alla Magione (from 1623 to 1708).
- Church of Fontegiusta (from 1709 to 1733).
- Church of Saint Bartolomeo alla Castellaccia di Camollia (from 1733 to 1788).
Work by Vico Consorti, made in 1962, situated in Via Malta, it has the motto carved on it.