Feast of San Vito in Polignano a mare
from 14 to 16 June Polignano is celebrating
Polignano dresses up!
From 14 to 16 June Polignano returns to celebrate its patron saint, San Vito Martire, and will do so in grand style.
Legend has it that after the martyrdom of San Vito a pious matron named Fiorenza, at the mercy of a storm, asked for help from God who sent the saint to help her. To thank him she decided to give him a worthy burial in a "locus marianus" as requested by San Vito himself. This place turned out to be at the Castrum Polymnianense, today the Port of San Vito.
Right there on June 14 the effigy of the saint will, as usual, be placed on a raft and accompanied from the suggestive Port of San Vito to Cala Paura.
Then the procession starts which culminates in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele, where the keys of the city are given to the saint.
The effigy is then placed on an altar which remains on display for the duration of the festival.
On June 15 the solemn procession takes place to carry the relics of the saint in the streets of the town, usually kept in two reliquaries in the Abbey of San Vito, containing the bone of an arm of the Saint and the patella of a knee of San Vito. .
On June 16 with another procession the relics are brought back to the mother church and ends with a great fireworks festival.
The city is embellished by the typical Apulian lights and there is an air of celebration.
Why don't you come and see Polignano dressed up for the party?
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