History
The origins
The Society that the Dragaioli decided to found in the second half of the 19th century was one of the first of the associations formed in that period, and from the very beginning it took the name “Camporegio”, which it has kept to this day.
The Commission appointed at the Assembly of 31 August 1879 carried out its task with commendable speed, so much so that after just two weeks (on 14 September) another Extraordinary Meeting was held to discuss and approve “the statute of the new Società di Camporegio”, which came into force on 1 October.
The statute, made up of 35 articles, established that the emblem of the Society would be a Dragon on a field quartered in red and yellow, bearing the inscription “Società di Camporegio per i pubblici spettacoli” (Camporegio Society for public entertainments); it specified that the Society would be made up of all those belonging to the Contrada del Drago as natives, residents, geniali (members by choice) and protettori, setting out how they were admitted and took on roles within it; and it established that the main purpose of the Society was to take care of public festivities.
In the rooms of Camporegio, in the years that followed, important pages would be written in the history not only of the Drago but of all the Contrade. On 31 May 1887, for example, the Committee of the Priori was set up, the first concrete sign of the will to bring the seventeen Priori together in a body able to connect, coordinate and protect the Contrade; an aim that was achieved, again in Camporegio, seven years later, on 25 November 1894, when the Assembly of the seventeen Priori, convened by the Priore of the Drago Patrizio Chiusarelli, constituted itself as the Magistrato delle Contrade and appointed Patrizio Chiusarelli himself as provisional President of the body.
On 29 September 1892, moreover, our association officially embraced the principles of mutual aid, taking the name “Società M.S. di Camporegio” (Mutual Aid Society), since the aim of paying members an allowance in case of illness was added to the statute.
The Society's operating rules remained substantially unchanged for many years, and many of them are still in force today, allowing the Dragaioli to live in an environment of full mutual respect for the place and for the contradaioli who make it up.
The conflicts
A profound change in the character and role of Camporegio, as indeed of all the other existing Contrada Societies, came about during the period of the fascist dictatorship. Fascism, intent on consolidating its power and getting rid of its opponents, recognised the right to exist of associations outside the Party only on the essential condition that they declared and pursued aims that were completely harmless in the eyes of the regime. That political climate, marked by strict controls and bans, led to the decision to dissolve the Società di Camporegio on 19 August 1929. The premises nevertheless remained in use for organising festivities and games, but elections and any activity of a more political nature were abolished.
The Statute was reduced from 35 articles to 16, and the offices of the governing body, no longer elected, were reorganised. The members of the first council were Giulio Grisaldi Del Taja (Priore/President), Cesare Grassi (Vicario/Inspector), Faliero Franci (Camarlengo) and Angelo Vannini (Cancelliere).
In the period that followed, the activities of the Società di Camporegio dwindled to the point of creating serious problems in keeping the premises, so much so that on 1 October 1932 a contract was signed to lease them to the Dopolavoro Postelegrafonici (the recreational club of the postal and telegraph workers). Life within the Society nevertheless went on, following the events the city had to face with the outbreak of the Second World War.
Immediately after the liberation of Siena (3 July 1944) the Dragaioli felt the need to bring their Society back to life. The proposal was accepted and the Priore Rio Mattei was given the mandate to take the necessary steps to regain possession of the premises in Via del Paradiso; but on that very day the president of the Postelegrafonici, Giacomo Duchi, was served with an order requisitioning the premises by the “Town Major” (a sort of mayor appointed by the Allied troops), who turned them into a warehouse of basic necessities for the Allies.
On 1 September 1945 the premises were released from requisition, but the managers of the Postelegrafonici refused to return the keys, so much so that the General Council of the Contrada of 18 July 1945 decided to take legal action, entrusting the case to the lawyer Gian Carlo Manenti. After long and complex negotiations, an agreement was reached to extend the Postelegrafonici's lease until September 1947.
The reconstruction
The first Board of the revived Società di Camporegio took office on 7 January 1948 and was made up as follows:
- President: Mario Calamati
- Vice President: Muzio Massoni
- Councillors: Vico Consorti and Enrico Lorenzini
- Secretary-Treasurer: Lio Lonzi
- Bursar: Otello Tognazzi
- Cashier: Renato Cambi
- Inspectors: Luigi Cappannoli and Fausto Santini
Finally, in January 1948, the Contrada regained the use of the main part of the buildings, and on 8 March the President Mario Calamati inaugurated the premises of the new Società di Camporegio.
The 1947 Statute remained almost unchanged until 9 March 1973, when the Camporegio Assembly decided to extend the Board's term of office from one to two years, so that it would end at the same time as the elected offices of the Contrada, which had made the same change to its Capitoli (statutes). Another important change dates from October 1985 and concerned the composition of the Board, whose members rose from 9 to 11: a second Vice President was introduced, the office of Secretary-Treasurer was split in two, the Inspectors were abolished and the number of Councillors rose from 2 to 4. The number of Board members was increased again, from 11 to 16, with the addition of 5 Councillors on 20 September 1993.
Although the Statute has been amended over the years, the purpose of Camporegio has never changed. The reason that led the Dragaioli to form a Society was to create a place that would raise money to help with expenses, especially those for the Palio, and at the same time offer members occasions to meet outside the set times of Contrada life.
Recent times: the new Society
At the General Assembly of the Contrada of 26 November 1980, a free-loan agreement with the Comune di Siena was approved for the spaces beneath the “Tito Sarrocchi” Institute. The following year, thanks to determined Dragaioli, work began on clearing the vegetation and restoring what would later become the Voltoni. Although the plan to turn them into what was in effect an open-air Society seemed unfeasible, the Dragaioli never gave up and finally managed to make them usable, so much so that in May 1995 the first “Evenings in the Paradise of the Voltoni” were organised.
Meanwhile, in 1992, an official request was made for the use of part of the “Tito Sarrocchi” Institute, so as to have a new space well connected to the Voltoni, and in 1997 the agreement by which the Comune granted these buildings was finally signed.
At this point the Contrada was called upon to take a historic step: to decide whether to move its century-old seat in Via del Paradiso to the places that in the 17th century had housed the first seat of the Contrada del Drago, granted by the Compagnia Laicale di San Domenico.
The return to the “origins” was about to be completed, but the move was not entirely painless: heated Assemblies followed one another, during which a group of Dragaioli expressed their opposition to the move. The vast majority, however, chose the road to the future.
The renovation project was officially born between 18 March and 13 October 1997 and went through many vicissitudes, which in the early 2000s brought the works to a halt until January 2008. This long and troubled story, lived with heartfelt and anxious involvement and, at times, with the polemical tones typical of our Contrada, came to an end on 21 May 2011, on the eve of the Festa Titolare. On that occasion, at the inauguration of the new premises of the Società di Camporegio at San Domenico, all the people of the Drago, the representatives of the other Contrade and the city authorities were left open-mouthed at the stunning view of the city that embraces the new Society.
