Flower Festival of the Corpus Domini of Cupramontana

The Flower Festival, Cupramontana's finest day

On the Sunday of the Corpus Domini solemnity, Cupramontana, a small municipality in the Province of Ancona known as the capital of Verdicchio, experiences one of its most cherished days. At dawn, while the village is still quiet, dozens of volunteers kneel along the streets to form a floral carpet of approximately 1,600 square meters, winding for over 800 meters through the historic center. It is the Corpus Domini Flower Festival, a tradition that intertwines faith, art, and a sense of community.

A tradition born in the post-war era

Its origins date back to 1947: in those years, the children of farmers, linked to the Confraternity of the Most Holy Sacrament, scattered simple wildflowers along the procession route. It was later some citizens with artistic flair who separated the flowers by color and arranged them according to a precise design, giving life to the Flower Festival as we know it today. Since then, the event has continued uninterrupted, surpassing half a century of history.

How the flower carpet is created

The work begins long before the festive Sunday. It is the middle school students of Cupramontana who create the design sketches, under the guidance of their art teacher; local artisans then create the wooden and iron molds. In the days preceding the event, volunteers gather flowers from the surrounding fields and woods: broom for yellow, red geranium petals, freshly cut grass for green, and white flowers. The laying of the petals usually begins on Sunday morning, around 6:30 AM, so that the artwork is complete by the time the procession passes.

The route and the procession

The floral compositions decorate the main streets of the town center, including Via Matteotti, Via Don Minzoni, Via Roma, and Piazza IV Novembre. The day follows the rhythm of the liturgy: the Holy Mass, usually celebrated at 10:30 AM in the Church of San Lorenzo, is followed by the solemn Eucharistic procession that winds through the adorned streets, symbolically treading on the carpet of petals as a sign of devotion.

Among the Verdicchio hills

The Flower Festival is also an opportunity to discover Cupramontana and the Castelli di Jesi, a land with fertile soil and a climate favorable to the production of excellent Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi wine. Visiting the village on the Sunday of Corpus Domini means combining the charm of an ancient popular tradition of the Marche region with the beauty of a hilly landscape dedicated to wine and hospitality.