Inchinata Festival

The most anticipated night of the Tiburtine summer

Every year, on the evening of August 14th, the historic center of Tivoli fills with the faithful, curious onlookers, and visitors for the Inchinata Festival, the solemn procession that commemorates the meeting between Christ and his Mother on the eve of the Assumption. The protagonists are two sacred images deeply beloved by the people of Tivoli: the Triptych of the Most Holy Savior, kept in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo, and the Madonna delle Grazie, venerated in the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. For one entire night, the two icons leave their respective churches and traverse the city's oldest streets, in a rite that is both an act of faith and a collective memory.

The ritual of the bow in Piazza Trento

The climax occurs in Piazza Trento: beneath two arches of myrtle branches placed facing one another, the two sacred images perform a reciprocal bow in a gesture of greeting and devotion, while the crowd cries out, «Mercy, mercy, mercy!». In recent editions, the rite has also been marked by traditional musket fire. After the bow, the two images remain facing each other in the central nave of Santa Maria Maggiore throughout the night, until the return procession on the morning of August 15th.

A path laden with symbols

The evening procession departs from the Cathedral and passes through Piazza Domenico Tani, Via San Valerio, and Piazza Rivarola, with a stop at the Ponte Gregoriano: here, the waters of the Aniene river are blessed, and a lamp—symbolizing the light of faith—is cast into the river. The procession then pauses at the San Giovanni Evangelista hospital, where the prior of the Confraternity of the Savior kisses the threshold of the place of suffering, and the chaplain symbolically washes the feet of the Pilgrim. From there, the journey continues along Via del Trevio and Piazza Santa Croce until reaching Piazza Trento, the heart of the rite.

Medieval origins and civic memory

The Inchinata has deep roots in the Middle Ages: 14th-century statutes of Tivoli already stipulated that the curfew should not be rung on the evening of August 14th, and the first detailed description of the festival is credited to the Tiburtine historian Giovanni Maria Zappi in the 16th century. The rite echoes an even older tradition practiced in Rome with the venerated image of the Savior of San Giovanni in Laterano, while legend attributes the Tiburtine icon to Pope Simplicius in the 5th century. It is no coincidence that the Inchinata is considered one of the strongest symbols of the city's identity.

August 15th: The Guilds and Confraternities

On the morning of Ferragosto, the festival continues with the return procession, accompanied by the city's ancient guilds of arts and crafts—gardeners, pozzolana workers, farmers, carpenters, shoemakers, and tailors—followed by the city's confraternities: a parade that reflects the image of the corporate Tivoli of the past.

A festival in the heart of Lazio

Organized by the Parish of the Cathedral of San Lorenzo with the Diocese of Tivoli and supported by the Municipality of Tivoli, the Inchinata attracts thousands of people every year from across the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital and the rest of the Lazio region. It is also the ideal opportunity to discover an extraordinary city, world-famous for Villa d'Este and Villa Adriana: in recent editions, the evening of August 14th has concluded with a fireworks display at the Amphitheatre of Bleso.