Madonna di Costantinopoli Fair and Zuccarrina Potato Festival

The end-of-summer festival in Calimera

On the last weekend of September, typically the fourth Saturday of the month and the following Sunday, the town of Calimera, in the province of Lecce, celebrates the Madonna di Costantinopoli Fair combined with the Zuccarrina Potato Festival. It is the event that symbolically closes the summer season and brings the community back to the town's Market Area, amidst stalls, the scents of rustic cuisine, and folk music. The event is organized by the Pro Loco Calimera in collaboration with the Municipality of Calimera.

Madonna di Costantinopoli: faith and Byzantine tradition

The fair originated as a devotional appointment linked to the small church dedicated to the Madonna di Costantinopoli, once also known as Santa Lucia. The place of worship preserves the memory of a Byzantine-style fresco depicting the Virgin between a Latin-rite bishop and an Eastern-rite one, a testament to the long coexistence of Greek and Latin cultures that characterizes this corner of Salento. The religious part of the event includes Marian celebrations, a procession through the town streets, and brass band concerts.

The Zuccarrina potato, an agricultural treasure of Salento

The gastronomic heart of the festival is the Zuccarrina potato of Calimera, a variety of sweet potato grown for generations on the town's lands. Recognized as one of the Traditional Agri-food Products (PAT) of Puglia, it was once the preferred breakfast dish for Calimera's farmers due to its high nutritional value. The female farmers, known as patanare, tended to them with great dedication, watering the plants during the night hours. Today, the tuber is the star of tastings, traditional dishes, and even an artisanal beer, La Kumara, produced from the local sweet potato.

A program of taste, crafts, and music

During the event, the Market Area hosts food stalls featuring Zuccarrina potato producers, an agricultural and craft market showcasing typical Salento handiwork—papier-mâché, wrought iron, Lecce stone, terracotta, and textiles—as well as organic products and a rich program of live music. The evening is dedicated to folk music concerts and the sonic traditions of the area.

Calimera and Grecìa Salentina

Calimera is one of the municipalities of Grecìa Salentina, the area in the province of Lecce where Griko, an ancient language of Greek origin, still survives. The very name of the town means "good morning" in Greek. Visiting the festival means discovering not only an identity-defining agricultural product but also a community that proudly preserves one of the most original cultural legacies of Puglia.