Our Lady of Grace Festival

A festival born from a snowy legend

The Our Lady of Grace Festival is the most cherished event in Castelvetere sul Calore, a village in upper Irpinia perched above the Calore valley, in the province of Avellino, in the heart of inland Campania. Tradition tells that in the Middle Ages, the Virgin appeared to an elderly benefactor, asking for a church to be built in her honor. When no one believed her, the Madonna promised to indicate the chosen site herself: on April 28th, a village square was found entirely covered in snow. The Tempietto del Miracolo (Little Temple of the Miracle) was built right there; it remains the spiritual heart of the community and is now housed within the Sanctuary of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which was proclaimed a diocesan sanctuary in 1992 and holds a precious 15th-century triptych.

The Madonna's bread: the tortani

The true star of the festival is the tortano, a ring-shaped blessed bread prepared in Castelvetere only for this occasion. This is not artisanal production on commission, but a collective effort: about two weeks before April 28th, the village women begin the ammasso, the evening and nightly phase where the dough is prepared and left to rise. The following day, the dough is shaped and baked in communal ovens, fueled by wood gathered in the preceding weeks. In a dozen days of work, up to 50,000 tortani are baked, including gluten-free versions for those with celiac disease.

• Wood gathering: the first collective outings effectively open the festival calendar.
• Ammasso and baking: nights of kneading and days of baking, from the Monday that starts the cycle until a few days before the feast.
• Blessing of the tortani: on April 27th, in the Church of San Lorenzo, the bread is blessed before distribution.
• The bread altar: inside the church, a composition made entirely of tortani is set up, serving as the symbolic image of the festival.

The spunzatrici, little images of the Madonna

The most photographed moment is the parade of the spunzatrici (or spunziatrici, meaning 'dispensers'). These are girls between 8 and 12 years old who, after the religious rite on April 28th, walk through the village streets with baskets of tortani to deliver them to every family. They wear wide white dresses, hand-stitched by the locals, embroidered and covered in gold borrowed out of devotion by the families of Castelvetere: necklaces, brooches, and chains that mimic the ornaments on the statue of Our Lady of Grace kept in the sanctuary. Each girl is accompanied by her cavalieri (knights) and a madrina (godmother) in a procession that is simultaneously a ritual, a gift, and a symbolic representation of Marian generosity.

The Madonna's lilies

On April 25th, weather permitting, the village youth climb the mountains to gather lilies, the flowers that bloom just in time to be used on April 27th to decorate the throne where the Madonna's statue will be placed. It is a preparatory ritual that precedes the dressing of the girls and marks the village's entry into the solemn days.

April 29th: the festival reaches the outskirts

The festival does not end on the 28th. The following day, the spunzatrici—this time without gold, wearing simple dresses and carrying larger baskets—reach the outlying districts and small settlements around the historic center to bring bread to those living outside the village. The journey is done strictly on foot and can last about six hours, accompanied by groups of young people of all ages.

Why it's worth the trip

Considered one of the most significant devotional events in Irpinia, the Our Lady of Grace Festival is not a show built for tourists: it is a living rite where the entire Municipality of Castelvetere sul Calore organizes itself for weeks. Visitors find a village of a few hundred inhabitants that multiplies its population, the scent of fresh bread along the alleys, and a devotion expressed through the simplest gesture possible: giving bread. The sanctuary is also a pilgrimage destination on July 2nd, the second annual recurrence linked to Our Lady of Grace.