The Collegiate Church of Santa Maria in Provenzano

A Sienese Hero and the Turkish Flag

The Collegiate Church of Provenzano arose as a Marian shrine. Thus over the centuries many people have entered its doors to ask for grace from Our Lady or to thank Her for grace received, leaving a devotional object, an ex voto, as a gift. The Turkish flag on the upper left wall of the apse is connected with this custom. We know its history thanks to the diary of the man who brought it here.
In the year 1683 a young man from a noble Sienese family, Paolo Amerighi, barely seventeen years old and armed with great courage, decided to enlist in the Austrian imperial army, led by Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, in the campaign to free the Hungarian people, at the time subjugated by the Turkish sultan Mohammed IV.
On 13 August 1685 the Austrian troops defeated the Turks in Hungary, on the Esseck plain. Our hero from Siena played a leading role in the battle: Paolo Amerighi killed the enemy standard-bearer and took his flag away from him, taking it back to his camp. The commander, as a sign of gratitude for the courage the young man had shown in battle, made a gift to him of the flag he had captured on the field.
After this deed, Amerighi remained another year in the imperial army. In 1686 he participated valorously in the Austrian army’s conquest of the city of Buda, up to then in Turkish hands, and on this occasion was wounded. In December of that year, he requested and was granted permission to return home, probably feeling he had done enough for the imperial cause.
Naturally, he brought the Turkish flag with him, and on 17 December 1686 he decided to offer it to Our Lady of Provenzano as a sign of thanks for having spared his life in battle and allowing him to return home. Since then, the flag in the church and a plaque on the left side of the chancel commemorate Amerighi’s deed.