Terribly uncomfortable shoes medieval women

In Europe in the XIV—XVII centuries of ecah was circulated women's shoes with very thick soles — COPINE, zoccoli or panelle. It is believed that it was created in Venice, partly under the influence of similar shoes from Central Asia. Platforms made of cork or wood, in height they reached 50 centimeters, according to other sources — 1 meter (39 inches).

These shoes allow you to emphasize your status and not to stain your dress and feet in the mud and city sewage. Wore them, and a noblewoman and a commoner.

Sometimes these shoes were extravagant and expensive. It was made of wood and covered with thin silk or velvet, and were sometimes adorned with silver lace, precious stones and silk tassels.

To wear such shoes to walk and it was uncomfortable, wealthy women were supported by a servant.

In Venice these shoes called "coccoli" — the sound they made when walking.

The Catholic Church believed this Shoe depraved and dissolute. Now the word zoccola (feminine noun derived from the zoccolo — "wooden Shoe") is Italian slang used to mean "prostitute".

In Spain, coccoli was comfortable, often rustic shoes, saving from the puddles and mud. They were called chapín (this is also an imitation of the sound produced when walking). Since in English this shoes got called chopine, the Spaniards claim that the platform shoes they invented.

As zoccoli, chopine were made out of wood or leather, wore them, both men and women. In each region, they had their own peculiarities, his carving is the decoration, their design and their local names. For example, in Cantabria, they were called "albarka" (albarca) — albarka there are to this day.

In Germany chopine called Dreckschuhe — "shoes for the mud."

Fashion COPINE affected England. If a British bride has added to his stature copyname and groom have figured out that only after the wedding, in case of dissatisfaction he could refuse such a marriage.

Platform sandals was used in Turkey and in Morocco — at first only as bath shoes, and then East ladies began to wear them outside in bad weather as Europeans.

Painting Vittore Carpaccio "Two ladies". John Ruskin was sure that Carpaccio wrote a portrait of these women to the order and found a way to show their attitude to him: "to define the overall satirical intent, in the corner placed a pair of ladies shoes, which were the most vulgar place and absurdity a means of expressing female pride in the fifteenth and following centuries".

Jean Etienne Liotard — "Two Turkish girls".

Platform shoes — leather, wood, metal — the people were several centuries out of fashion only in the XVII century, when it was replaced heels. It is believed that in Venice wearing COPINE banned, when they fell pregnant and lost the baby.

Jean-Leon Gerome — "The Bath".

In the XX century, thanks to designer Salvatore Ferragamo platform shoes once again came into fashion. Original chopine now preserved only in a few museums.