Patronal Feast of Saint Anthony (Carcalenzio of Saint Anthony)

The Carcalenzio, the fire of Saint Anthony in Gallara

A short distance from the center of Montecorvino Pugliano, in the heart of the Salerno hills, the small village of Gallara preserves one of the most evocative traditions linked to the patronal feast of Saint Anthony of Padua, protector of Pugliano, celebrated on June 13th. It is called Carcalenzio: a large pile of dry wood that is set ablaze at dusk before the gathered community. The name is dialectal and varies from town to town—elsewhere it becomes 'a fòcara, u' fòcaro, u' ceppone, or simply bonfire—but the gesture remains the same: burning the old to make way for the new.

A ritual of purification

According to local scholars who have documented the festival for years, the Saint Anthony bonfire is both an act of devotion and an ancient gesture linked to the awakening of nature: light conquering darkness, fire banishing fear and cold, and flames that purify. It is a blend that unites Catholic religiosity with the layers of southern peasant culture, where fire marked the passages of the agricultural year. Around the burning pile, songs and odes in honor of the saint are raised—a repertoire passed down orally, performed live in Gallara with musical accompaniment by maestro Giuseppe Notarfrancesco.

The gardens of Casa Conforti

The setting is not just any square, but the gardens of Casa Conforti, a noble residence in Gallara whose oldest sections date back to the 16th century, when the De Simone family built the ground floor and first level; the second floor and the dovecote were added in the mid-18th century, while the animal-powered olive mill bears the date 1835. Purchased by Generoso Conforti in 1904 and restored multiple times—including after the 1980 earthquake and again in 2014—the house retains arched windows, original wooden beams, the entrance portal, and an ancient family chapel with a barrel vault. A perfect backdrop for a fire ritual.

Who organizes it

The evening is curated by the «Amici di Gallara» cultural and volunteer association, founded in 2017 to protect and promote the architectural, artistic, historical, and environmental heritage of the area. Over the years, the association has added a full cultural program to the ritual moment: book presentations, debates with historians and anthropologists, and meetings on local memory, always held in the house's gardens near June 13th.

The patronal feast of Saint Anthony

The Carcalenzio is part of the broader calendar of patronal festivities in Pugliano, where Saint Anthony of Padua is venerated on June 13th with traditional liturgical celebrations. Montecorvino Pugliano, a municipality in the province of Salerno in Campania, is a mosaic of hillside hamlets overlooking the plain that stretches from Salerno to Eboli and Paestum: each preserves its own devotions, and Gallara finds its identity in the June fire. The village, mentioned as loco Gallara as early as 1260, had only about thirty inhabitants in the 1632 census: a tiny place that comes to life once a year.

What to expect

• The lighting of the large wood pile at dusk, the central and most anticipated moment of the evening
• Popular songs and odes in honor of Saint Anthony, with live musical accompaniment
• An opening cultural meeting, which in recent editions has taken the form of book presentations and debates on tradition
• An intimate and familiar atmosphere, far removed from large mass events
• The opportunity to discover Casa Conforti and the alleys of the village of Gallara

When to go

The event traditionally falls in the days immediately preceding June 13th: in the documented editions of 2024 and 2025, it took place on June 12th. The dates for the 2026 edition have not yet been released: it is advisable to follow the channels of the «Amici di Gallara» association and the local Salerno press in the weeks leading up to the patronal feast.