Purgatory Lunch

A lunch spanning five centuries

The Purgatory Lunch is celebrated in Gradoli, a small town in the Province of Viterbo, Lazio, perched on the northwestern shore of Lake Bolsena. The date is fixed: Ash Wednesday, the day that marks the beginning of Lent, immediately following the end of Carnival. It is the town's defining identity event, handed down for over five hundred years by the Brotherhood of Purgatory, a confraternity founded in the 16th century to honor and pray for the souls in Purgatory while simultaneously helping those in need.

The Brotherhood and the days leading up to the feast

The Brotherhood brings together ninety men, ranging from eighteen-year-olds to eighty-five-year-old veterans, and works year-round. The cycle of the lunch begins on Fat Thursday: the brothers, dressed in brown habits with hoods and purple mantles, walk through the streets of Gradoli and the surrounding countryside to collect food, agricultural products, and gifts of all kinds. On the following Saturday, the collected items are auctioned in the square: the proceeds from this auction, along with the offerings from the diners, fully fund the banquet and the brotherhood's charitable works.

The night of fire

The heart of the preparation takes place at night. At two in the morning on Ash Wednesday, the brothers light the fires in the cellars of the Oleificio Sociale on Via Roma: more than ten large copper boilers, about five tons of wood, and a collective kitchen that runs throughout the night and morning. Those arriving in Gradoli at dawn find the village enveloped in smoke and the aroma of beans: it is one of the most authentic images that inland Lazio has to offer.

The Lenten menu

The table strictly adheres to the fasting precept: no meat, only legumes and lake fish. The menu has remained almost identical over the centuries and includes:

• Purgatory beans from Gradoli, a small white legume grown on the volcanic soils around the lake, a local gastronomic presidium;
• rice soup with tench sauce, the most anticipated course, whose recipe is jealously guarded by the village cooks;
• stewed pike, caught in Lake Bolsena;
• fried whiting and boiled salt cod, seasoned with local extra virgin olive oil, garlic, and parsley;
• an apple to finish the meal.

Tradition dictates that each guest brings their own bread, cutlery, plate, and wine from home, and leaves an offering for the suffrage masses. The quantities give a measure of the event: about 250 kilos of beans, hundreds of kilos of pike, whiting, and salt cod, and dozens of kilos of tench for the sauce.

Solidarity, not folklore

The Purgatory Lunch began as an offer of a meal to the village poor and has never ceased to be so: the entire proceeds are donated to charity, supporting local families in difficulty and solidarity projects. This is why in Gradoli, it is not called a food festival but a collective commitment, and why the event attracts diners from all over Italy, authorities, and institutional guests alongside the village residents.

Gradoli and Lake Bolsena

The village is worth a visit beyond the lunch: the Farnese Palace, the medieval historic center overlooking the lake, the Farnese Costume Museum, and the cellars carved into the tuff tell a story linked to the Farnese family and the viticulture of Upper Lazio, the land of the Aleatico di Gradoli. Within a few kilometers, you can reach Bolsena, Capodimonte, Montefiascone, and Bisentina Island.