San Gottardo Patronal Festival in Colloro

A mountain festival that never moves

May 4th is an immutable date for Colloro, a hamlet in the municipality of Premosello-Chiovenda, in the province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Piedmont. The San Gottardo Patronal Festival is always celebrated on this day, regardless of the day of the week, and is never moved to the nearest Sunday: local tradition holds that the year they tried to change the date, the harvest went particularly poorly, and no one has dared to touch it since.

The patron saint of Colloro

San Gottardo has been venerated since time immemorial, but he only officially became the patron saint in 1993. His church, which dates back to the 16th century and preserves a fresco of the saint on its facade, overlooks the small village facing the Val Grande National Park, the largest wilderness area in Italy. It is here that the community gathers every year for a well-attended solemn mass and a procession that winds through the village streets with the saint's statue, marked by stops at designated points along the route.

San Gottardo bread and the baskets

The heart of the festival's identity is the rye bread, once baked in the village's numerous ovens. During the mass, about twenty baskets (gerle) filled with bread are presented at the feet of the statue, carried on the shoulders according to custom, to be blessed and then distributed to the faithful. The rye is grown by local youths, and the bread is baked in a village oven: a gesture that revives ancient alpine self-sufficiency and once ensured blessed bread for several months.

The community lunch at the Circolo

After the religious celebrations, the festival continues with a community lunch at the Colloro ACLI Circolo, a convivial moment open to residents and visitors alike. The table is set with traditional products from the Ossola mountains, including Masaret, a typical local dish. The day usually concludes with vespers and accordion music.

Why it's worth attending

• An authentic patronal festival, far from tourist circuits, in the territory of the Val Grande National Park.
• The rare tradition of blessed rye bread carried in baskets.
• A community lunch featuring the true flavors of Ossola.
• An opportunity to discover Colloro and its 16th-century church.

In Colloro, the festival is also linked to San Venanzio, protector of mountain travelers, honored on the second Sunday after San Gottardo, at the beginning of the hiking season.