Religious Festival of the Most Holy Crucifix - Serranova

A festival of devotion in the heart of Salento

In the countryside separating Carovigno from the sea, just a few kilometers from the Torre Guaceto reserve, the village of Serranova preserves one of the most deep-rooted religious traditions in the province of Brindisi. Every year, on May 3rd, this small hamlet of the Municipality of Carovigno celebrates the Religious Festival of the Most Holy Crucifix, a rite that unites the village inhabitants, the faithful from neighboring towns, and the many pilgrims linked to the devotion of the miraculous Crucifix.

The miraculous Crucifix of Serranova

At the heart of the festival is the venerated Crucifix of Serranova, an 18th-century wooden crucifix kept in the three-altar chapel of the 17th-century castle. According to popular tradition, the icon arrived from the sea: the crew of a ship, having miraculously escaped a violent storm off the coast of Torre Guaceto, wished to donate it to the chapel of Serranova as a votive offering for the grace received. Since then, every May 3rd, the Crucifix is carried in procession to ward off calamities and periods of drought, in a gesture rooted in the region's rural civilization.

The castle and the village

The festival takes place in the evocative setting of the Castle of Serranova, built in 1629 by the Genoese nobleman Ottavio Serra, from whom the village takes its name, and once the summer residence of the Dentice di Frasso princes of San Vito dei Normanni. The small agricultural settlement surrounding the castle was officially inaugurated on May 2, 1956, as part of land reform, breathing new life into the rural community that still enlivens the festival today.

Between faith, tradition, and fair

The day of May 3rd revolves around the solemn Eucharistic celebration and the procession of the Crucifix through the streets of the village, moments of intense popular participation. The religious dimension is traditionally accompanied by the agricultural and commercial fair of the Most Holy Crucifix, with stalls featuring local products, handicrafts, and Apulian gastronomic specialties, transforming small Serranova into a lively meeting point for the entire Carovigno territory.

• Solemn Eucharistic celebration in the Mother Church
• Traditional procession of the Crucifix of Serranova
• Agricultural and commercial fair with local products and handicrafts
• Public opening of the castle chapel

Immersed in the landscape of the Brindisi countryside, amidst ancient olive trees and the nearby coast of Torre Guaceto, the Festival of the Most Holy Crucifix of Serranova represents an authentic slice of devotional and rural Puglia, where popular faith remains the beating heart of the community today.