The Marostica game

Chess with living characters. The magnificent chess square in Marostica brings to life, on the second weekend in September, in even years, on the large marble chessboard the story of the daughter of the town's castellan, the beautiful Lionora, and the two young men who competed for her hand. Taddeo Parisio imposed, at that time, not wanting to lose either of the two talented young men, and following a law issued by the Doge, apparently after the Veronese story of Romeo and Juliet, that the contrast should be decided not by a bloody duel, but by a game of chess: the battle of two kings with mock armies. The tradition continues to be repeated today with the movements of 650 participants (5% of the town) and singing and dancing, fireworks and illuminations. The idea of reviving this historical legend came in 1923 to Francesco Pozzi, a young chemistry student, who managed to mobilise the village around his intuition. Resumed in 1954, with studied research by the futurist artist Mirko Vucetich, today, as then, the tradition is renewed in a sumptuous setting of precious costumes and gonfalons, and the commands still resound in the ancient language of the Serenissima Republic. All around, the serene hospitality and tasty cuisine of the Vicenza province. The match with its costumes and musicians is one of the most popular and most performed Italian historical spectacles in the world. Visit the site