This was the Contrada of huntsmen from which the Sienese army chose the best archers. This accounts for the Contrada emblem and its right to open and close the procession which preceeded the "Caccia ai tori" (bull-hunt).
A rhinoceros in motion under a thickly foliaged oak tree bearing hunting trophies on its trunk. It is surmounted by a radiant golden sun. At the top of the emblem is the letter U on a blue background.
Orange and green flag bordered in white.
Selva, the first in the "Campo".
The strength.
Weavers
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The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, August 15th (celebrated on the 4th Sunday of August).
Città
"Società Rinoceronte" (Society rhinoceros), Via Vallepiatta, 26
Piazzetta della Selva, 5
vicolo delle Carrozze
San Sebastiano in Vallepiatta, via Franciosa (officiated since 1818) .
La Selva had as its first residence the Church belonging to the company of San Giovanni Battista, under the Duomo; a document dated 1675 explains that the link established between the Contrada and the Company had been in place for some years already: "Always and also at present the Offices and Huomini of the said Contrada understood, as they also intend, that by winning the Palio they will donate it to this pious place ".
In return, the Contrada received ten coins which were used to prepare the appearance worthily. The relationship went on until 1697 the year in which, with the consent of the parish priest and the archbishop, the transfer to the Parish of San Giovanni was decided where the Selva officiated until 1758; the agreements provided for the sale of the Palio, eventually won, to the parish priest Pietro Viticchi who undertook to ... pay the jockey.
From 1759 the Contrada moved to San Sebastiano di Sotto, that is to say, to the crypt of the church built by the Tessilini di Pannilini, on the border with the Panther which, in 1786, by order of the Grand Duke Leopold, the woodcutters were forced to sell it passing through the Church of San Desiderio where, before the Leopoldian suppression, the company of San Bernardino della Carità had lived.
The earthquake of 1798, which damaged the church, forced the game makers to move to San Niccolò al Sasso located in the territory of L'Aquila. Finally, with an act of the "maire" of the French government and thanks to the work of the Vicar of the Contrada, Giovanni Bindi Sergardi, on March 24, 1818 the Contradaioli obtained the San Sebastiano for sale with the formula of "simple use": after four churches several the pilgrimage was over.
Permission to build a church dedicated to San Sebastiano, protector of the Tessitori, was granted in 1492 in a place called "San Sano, with the castle walls next to the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scala". The hospital sent him a year later as a gift to the Weavers of "a small house for the use of the church" and the Municipality allowed it to search for the city "pro ecclesia Sancti Bastiani de novo fabricatur".
Historians until the second half of the 1800s had attributed the project to Baldassarre Peruzzi but later the hypotheses that referred to Cozzarelli became more concrete, or even those referred to Francesco di Giorgio Martini. The church in 1514 was already a "bella et perfecta opera".
In the seventeenth century some historians refer to San Sebastiano as two superimposed churches, citing in this regard the fact that towards the end of the sixteenth century the nuns of the Order of the Poor of Vallepiatta tried to be assigned, without success, the upper oratory ; the members of the Arte dei Tessitori were kept in possession of the oratory set in the large cruciform crypt.
In the early 1600s decoration was provided by Pietro Sorri, Paolo Pisani, Raffaello Vanni and Astolfo Petrazzi but new problems were on the horizon: in 1772 the Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo suppressed all the arts and the weavers were no longer able to dispose of their church. ; in 1786 it was assigned to the Contrada della Pantera which maintained it until 1810 and only in 1818 did the church return to the Selva.
There are many works of art present: at the entrance, in a tribune, the work of Agostino Belli, there is the organ. On the two walls there are two anonymous seventeenth-century paintings with scenes from the Old Testament. The golden altar of an embroidered frontal is inserted in the hollow of the semicircular round niche. In the apsidiole is represented the "Presentation of Mary in the Temple" and on the sides of this four figures of Saints and Sibyls.
The altar painting represents "Epiphany" and is attributed to Astolfo Petrazzi. On the vault is frescoed "The Assumption" by Paolo Pisani and the altar canvas depicting "The Crucifixion" is by Rutilio Manetti. "The Blessing Madonna" which stands out on the altar between winged cherubs and clouds is revered by the Contrada as Madonna della Selva.
Previous oratories:
- Church of the Compagnia di Saint John under the Duomo (from the 16th century to 1697).
- Pieve di Saint John at Dome (from 1697 to 1758). < br> - Saint Desiderio (from 1786 to 1789).
- Saint Niccolò in Sasso (from 1789 to 1818).
The Contrada's baptismal font is the work of sculptor Vinicio Guastatori (1965). It is located in front of the Contrada Seat.