Caterina Segurana (1505 - August 15, 1543)
Caterina Segurana is the heroine of Italian folklore from the Siege of Nice, a takeover by the Franco-Ottoman alliance in 1543. Nice was a city on the Mediterranean coast of the northern part of Italy. Nice was the home of the Duke of Savoy, an ally to Charles V - the Holy Roman Emperor at the time. The city was unprepared, only local militias were available. Many women and young boys fought in the attack, including Caterina. The attack left the city in shambles, but a common woman, now known as La Segurane, was all anyone could talk about. There is little to support her existence but the tale goes as follows:
“as the Ottoman troops rose to the ramparts, she struck their standard bearer and grabbed the flag. She then turned her back, hiked up her skirts, leaned over, and mooned the enemy… she tore up the Ottoman standard and used it to scrub those lower parts. Then she threw the soiled rag down at the Ottomans in contempt.”
Caterina was a washer woman with large muscular arms who was skilled in the use of a laundry beater. She was known to be conventionally unattractive and rather unladylike like, traits that could have been given to her as a result of her behavior in the event.
Today, Caterina is recognized as an Italian hero. There are monuments, poems and songs made in her honor. National Caterina Segurana Day is concurrent with St. Catherine Day on November 25th.
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Recent postcard printed in honor of Caterina Segurana, Nice's heroine, on the 570th anniversary of her martyrdom for participating in the defense of Nice, during the siege by the French and Turks from 2 to 22 August 1543. On 15 August the Turks opened a breach in the walls and, despite fierce resistance, sacked the city. Only the castle remained impregnated but Caterina Segurana, who had fought bravely and thrown a Turk who was planting her flag from the breach, will be hanged at the Porta Paroliera by the French occupation troops.
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Caterina Serugana is a hero to me in her own right. She was judged negatively based on her actions, being called unattractive, lewd and unladylike, but was still esteemed for those same actions. Growing up, I have always been outspoken and different, sometimes being deemed “unladylike” by the ones around me. Caterina is a hero because she did what was not expected of a woman. She was strong like a man, something that would be undesirable to most. She did an obscene act out of fury and frustration, an act that is not typical of women of the time or even of the women today.
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