Saint John the Baptist Patronal Feast

A rediscovered patronal feast

The Saint John the Baptist Patronal Feast is celebrated every year on June 24th in Poggio Bustone, a small town in the province of Rieti, in the Lazio region. It marks the feast day of the saint to whom the local parish church is dedicated and, for generations, it has been the community's main summer event. After a long period of neglect, the festival was relaunched by the municipal administration led by Mayor Rovero Mostarda, together with the festival committee: an effort to reclaim local identity that has brought families, young people, and emigrants back to the village for the occasion.

Piazza della Torre, the heart of the festival

The natural stage for the event is Piazza della Torre, the village's central square, which also overlooks the town hall. This is where the stage for live music is set up, along with food and wine stalls run by volunteers. The evening of June 24th unfolds in a relaxed atmosphere: people eat at outdoor tables, listen to the band, and stop to chat in the medieval alleys that slope down toward the Rieti Plain. According to local reports, public participation has been particularly high since the first editions of the relaunch.

The porchetta of Poggio Bustone

The absolute star of the table is the porchetta of Poggio Bustone, a signature local product famous for its oven-roasting method and a flavor that residents consider inimitable. The local porchetta tradition is so deeply rooted that it has its own Porchetta Festival, one of the longest-running in the Rieti area, and it is a must-have at the patronal feast stalls, accompanied by wines from the Rieti Hills, cheeses, and homemade desserts. This gastronomic appeal is an explicit part of the municipality's tourism promotion strategy, which links its events to the theme of Franciscan hospitality.

The setting: the village of Saint Francis and Lucio Battisti

Poggio Bustone is no ordinary village. It is located in the so-called Rieti Holy Valley, the area that houses the four Franciscan sanctuaries in the province of Rieti. According to tradition, in 1208 Saint Francis of Assisi arrived here, greeting the inhabitants with a formula that has since become proverbial. Just above the village stands the Convent of San Giacomo, founded in 1235, a stop on the Cammino di Francesco (Way of St. Francis). The village is also the birthplace of Lucio Battisti, born here on March 5, 1943: a bronze statue at the Giardini di Marzo depicts him with his guitar and is a constant destination for fans.

The Church of Saint John the Baptist

The parish church of Saint John the Baptist, which gives the festival its name, is located in the heart of the historic center and is the town's main church. Inside, it preserves a 15th-century fresco depicting Saint Francis receiving the stigmata, a direct testimony to the bond between the village and the Franciscan story. The parish belongs to the Montepiano Reatino pastoral zone of the Diocese of Rieti and accompanies the patronal day with a solemn mass dedicated to the Baptist.

Why visit

Those looking for a massive, spectacular event will not find it here. Instead, the Saint John the Baptist festival is one of the best opportunities to understand how an Apennine village in Lazio truly lives: a few hundred people in the square, the scent of porchetta, music echoing off the stone walls, and, in the background, the view over the Laghi Lungo e Ripasottile Nature Reserve. An event that joins the other two major fixtures of the local calendar: the Passion of Christ in spring and the Saint Felice festival in early September.