Salionze Reenacts Pope Leo I and Attila Meeting Tradition

Monday evening, the Salionzesi and many spectators will attend the reenactment of the legendary encounter between Pope Leo I and Attila, King of the Huns. Giorgio Vandelli, the passionate archaeology enthusiast who in 1980 proposed the idea of a historical reenactment of that meeting, has no doubts: “Attila undoubtedly passed through here,” he affirms, “on his way toward Milan. The Roman and even prehistoric roads indeed passed through Salionze, contrary to the long-held belief that they went via the SS 11 highway. Perhaps the only uncertainty concerns the meeting with Pope Leo I, which tradition links to the name of the town.”

As every year, the residents of Salionze strive to recreate as faithfully as possible that face-to-face encounter that changed Italy’s history. In fact, on Monday evening around 9:30 pm, the long procession of Christians, dressed in white and led by Pope Leo I, will again block the road, just a few steps from the Mincio, to the King of the Huns. In the reenactment, the Huns camp a short distance from the stone cross that commemorates their invasion, while a choir sings some of the most famous arias from Giuseppe Verdi’s Attila.

The Scene and the Meaning of the Encounter

At a certain point, a long procession of people dressed in white is visible from afar: they are the Christians, led by the pope who holds the cross as the last bastion. Attila and the pope converse, and at the end of the meeting, the Hun king breaks the arrow as a sign of his renunciation of proceeding toward Rome. The celebration continues in the Hun camp, preparing for departure the following day, and the evening concludes with fireworks.

But what was Attila like? The numbers tell the story. He launched 700,000 men against the West, laying it waste and destroying prosperous cities. Tradition holds that only saints could have stopped him, such as Saint Loup in Troyes or Pope Leo I in Salionze.