B.V. Coelimanna Feast and Livestock Fair

The patronal feast of Supersano

The festivities in honor of the Blessed Virgin of Coelimanna are the most cherished event of the year in Supersano, an agricultural village in lower Salento in the Province of Lecce, nestled at the foot of the Serra. Every year, around the first Sunday of July, the town dresses up to honor the Madonna of Coelimanna, co-patron of the municipality alongside Saint Michael the Archangel, with a program that weaves together religious rites, popular culture, and the historic Livestock Fair.

The legend of Coelimanna

The unusual name of the Virgin derives from an ancient Greco-Latin inscription, Virgo Manna Coeli (the Virgin, manna from heaven), found in a Byzantine crypt discovered, according to tradition, in the 15th century after the Madonna appeared to a young shepherdess. On the site of the discovery, the Sanctuary of the Blessed Virgin of Coelimanna was built between the 17th and 18th centuries on the Serra of Supersano; the underground crypt, with sacred frescoes from the 13th-14th centuries, is considered one of the oldest in Salento and remains a pilgrimage destination today.

Religious rites and the procession

The most solemn moment is the procession that accompanies the statue of the Virgin from the Sanctuary to the Mother Church, where the image remains exposed for the veneration of the faithful for forty days. The celebrations include Holy Masses at the Sanctuary, the blessing, and the traditional handing over of the town keys to the Patron Saint by the Mayor—a gesture that symbolically entrusts Supersano to the protection of the Madonna, accompanied by the release of paper hot-air balloons.

Livestock Fair and rural tradition

The rites are accompanied by the historic Livestock Fair, a legacy of the town's rural vocation: a market that invades the streets of the center with animals, agricultural and livestock products, stalls, and food stands featuring Salento specialties. It is an opportunity to rediscover the flavors and crafts of the local peasant tradition.

Music, illuminations, and fireworks

The secular part of the festival transforms Piazza IV Novembre and the historic center into an open-air stage: under the impressive illuminations, there are brass band concerts in the bandstand, folk music performances, and the Flower Festival, the artistic carpet of petals created along the town's streets. To close the evenings, the highly anticipated midnight fireworks display illuminates the sky of Supersano. Between the sacred and the profane, the Coelimanna Feast is an authentic portrait of Salento identity and another reason to discover this corner of Puglia away from the most crowded circuits.