“Luminara dell’Assunta” | Santa Maria a Monte

The Luminara di Santa Maria a Monte is a procession that has been held for over 600 years on the eve of the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, the patron saint of the town.

The procession starts at 9.30 p.m. from the Collegiate Church and continues along Via Carducci, Via delle Grazie, Piazza della Vittoria and ends at the starting point. From 5 p.m. lighting of the candles.

From 1391 the first testimony
As early as 1391, there is documented evidence of the lighting of candles on the evening of the eve of the Feast of the Virgin, the fourteenth of August. Equipped with candles, men had to go to the Church of the Trinity (no longer in existence, but probably near the present-day Camposanto). Once ‘the candles’ were lit, the procession went to the parish church of Santa Maria a Monte, today’s Collegiata di San Giovanni.

About 7,000 candles
Today, the route through the streets of the village is lined with candles and about 7,000 candles that, instead of being carried by men as in the Middle Ages, are placed in small glass cups and hung in white wooden frames structured to enhance the profiles of the buildings, with prayer inscriptions and geometric designs decorating the walls.