Stamira is, according to ancient tradition, a heroic selfless woman who saved the city of Ancona during the siege of 1173 by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. At a particularly difficult moment in the siege, the inhabitants of Ancona made a short sortie and managed to throw a barrel of tar in front of the besiegers, but it was very dangerous to set it on fire. It was at this moment that the widow of Stamira bravely emerged from under the walls, holding an axe, with which she smashed the barrel and set it on fire, destroying some of the besiegers' fighting vehicles at the cost of her own life.→