The history of boccia

In order to get to know the history of this sport we have to look back upon the ancient times. In Egypt some objects and mural engravings relating to the ancestor of this game were found during the excavation of the tombs. The bowls were originally made of stone; later on the Latins curved them out of wood. This game, however, was also played with coconuts transported from Africa. In the Middle Ages it was played on the market places and in the streets. It conquered also the monasteries and the castles. Various prominent churchmen, lords and even ladies played it. In France Charles IV had prohibited this game, so from the 1300s it was classified as one of the forbidden activities for five centuries. In England Richard II, in 1388, then Henry VIII, in 1511, made it persecuted as a game of chance. It was punished in Venice, too.

Also Elisabeth I and Sir Francis Drake found pleasure in this sport. The most famous game was played by Sir Francis Drake and Lord Howard in Plymouth in 1588. They were waiting for the arrival of the Spanish Armada. Sir Francis Drake finished the game before sailing out to the channel in order to defeat the enemy. He said, "There's time to play the game and beat the Spanish." While in England boccia was the nobles' privilege - Charles I was a great player who introduced the bets - in France it became the game of the poor. In Lyon at the beginning of the XIXth century a police order declared to mark out an area for the boccia players where nobody could disturb them. The representatives of fifteen associations of Piemonte decided to found the Boccia Union of Piemonte in Rivoli on 14th November 1897. 22 years later the Italian Boccia Union was formed in Torino. The game became the hobby of famous and average people. Besides the above-mentioned Niccoló Paganini, André-Marie Ampére, Guiseppe Garibaldi, Maria Soldati, Sandro Pertini, the president of the Republic, Pope John Paul II, Adenauer played this sport.

Even the characters of the Walt Disney Cartoons knew boccia (1949). Some artists, e.g. Francisco Goya (1815) or Pablo Picasso (1910) were inspired by this sport. The Italians dispersed in the world try to preserve their original life style and take this game with themselves. That's why we can find boccia fields almost everywhere near the pubs, tennis courts of the hotels and on the beach. Besides the local competitions some international championships, like individual and team European and World Championships are organized. We look forward to having boccia among the Olympic games. According to the statistics of the book edited in the USA, "Bocce - A Sport for Everyone": "Today the top three most-participated sports in the world are 1) soccer 2) bocce and 3) golf." It's sure that this is an extraordinarily diverting sport for everybody regardless age, sex and weight.