Contrade of Siena

A contrada (plural: contrade) is generally a district within the Italian countryside. In the city of Siena, the term indicates the 17 urban wards, whose representatives race on horseback in the Palio di Siena, run twice every year in July and August. Each sienese contrada is named after an animal or symbol, with a long history and complicated heraldic and semi-mythological associations.