Palio "Selva" Rhino Plates

The oldest document recording the Palio and the oldest documentations of the Contrade date back to the thirteenth century: Contrada originally meant " a main inhabited street", then "neighbourhood" and finally the association of a district's inhabitants.

The Palio is run twice a year (the 2nd of July and the 16th of August) by 17 contrade: Aquila, bruco, chiocciola, civetta, drago, giraffa, istrice, leocorno, lupa, montone, nicchio, oca, onda, pantera, selva, tartufa, torre.

Selva runs west from the Piazza del Campo in the centre of the Siena. Traditionally, its residents were weavers, but when the contrade were mainly military they had a reputation for being excellent archers. Selva's symbol is a rhinoceros at the base of an oak tree hung with hunting tools. Its colours are green and orange, bordered with white.