Testaccio festa patronale: first weekend in June
The annual Testaccio festa patronale is the day when the neighbourhood’s patron saint, Santa Maria Liberatrice, is celebrated in the piazza with a parade and party.
Taking place every year during the last week in May and the first weekend in June, the Testaccio festa patronale or patronal festival is a unique opportunity to participate in a century-old tradition in this Rome neighbourhood.
Patronal festivals are saints’ days celebrated annually, usually featuring processions and feasts to thank the saint for a blessed year and to pray for a good year ahead. They are popular up and down Italy.
The official festival period officially opens on the Friday evening with a church service and over the next eight days, piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice in Testaccio is filled with music and celebration. The Testaccio festa patronale culminates on the Sunday when an effigy of the Madonna is carried down the steps of the Santa Maria Liberatrice church and through the district’s streets after the 18.00 evening mass.
Testaccio church: Santa Maria Liberatrice
The church of Santa Maria Liberatrice with its beautiful turn-of-the-century mosaics was constructed between 1906 and 1908, at a time when the population of Testaccio was made up of blue-collar workers, living in subsidised apartments. The name of the church was chosen by Pope Pio X, who wanted it to have a particular resonance for the local people.
Accordingly, he called it after one of Rome’s most historic churches, Santa Maria Liberatrice, which used to stand in the Roman Forum. That church had been built on top of the ruins of Santa Maria Antiqua al Foro, known as the first Marian temple in the Roman world, dating back to the 6th century, also making it the oldest Christian structure in the Forum. The original Santa Maria Liberatrice was completed by Onorio Longhi in 1617 but was later demolished in 1900 to bring to light the structure of the more ancient Santa Maria Antiqua.
To bring the connection with the lost church full circle, Pio X also arranged for the fresco, “Sancta Maria libera nos a poenis inferni”, salvaged from the original Santa Maria Liberatrice church and thus slightly concave in shape to be installed in the new building. In recent times, it had been stored in the Monastery of Tor de’ Specchi at the foot of the Campidoglio. The inscription under the fresco recounts its journey home.
“Questa chiesa perpetua il culto di S.Maria Liberatrice ereditando titolo e icone dell’omonoma chiesa demolita che dal secolo XVI all’anno MDCCCXCIX tenne il luogo e custodì le memorie di Santa Maria antiqua, primo santuario della madre di Dio nel mondo. I Salesiani del venerabile Giovanni Bosco con l’aiuto dei loro cooperatori e delle Nobili Oblate di Tor de’ Specchi eressero il rinnovato Santuario perché fosse solenne e non perituro omaggio a S.S.Santità Pio X nell’anno giubilare del suo sacerdozio.”
Testaccio’s only parish church, Santa Maria Liberatrice was designed by architect Mario Ceradini and entrusted first to the Benedictines, before being taken on by the Salesians, who run it to this day. On the facade, a beautiful mosaic – repaired in 1925 after it started to come away – faithfully reproduces a fresco from Santa Maria Antiqua. The central aisle of the church features black and white marble mosaics, containing geometric patterns and the signs of the zodiac, in a sequence starting with Aquarius and culminating with Capricorn under the altar, representing the month in which Christ was born.
Testaccio’s Festa Patronale: a guide to the festival weekend
Thursday evening
From 19.30: Music in Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice
Friday evening
16.45: The children of Testaccio lay a floral tribute in the church to Santa Maria Liberatrice
21.30: Music in Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice
Saturday evening
21.00: Music in Piazza Santa Maria Liberatrice
Sunday celebration: Testaccio festa patronale
10.00: Holy Mass in Chiesa Santa Maria Liberatrice, Testaccio
18.00: Eucharist
19.00: Procession of Maria Liberatrice accompanied by band
The parade usually passes through the streets of Piazza S. Maria Liberatrice, Via Nicola Zabaglia, Via G.B. Bodoni, Via Evangelista Torricelli, Via G. Ferraris, Via B. Franklin, Lungotevere Testaccio, Via Rubattino, Via A. Vespucci, Via Marmorata, Via G. Branca, Via L. Della Robbia, Via G.B. Bodoni, Via Zabaglia, Sagrato Chiesa
21.00: “Concert of traditional Roman music
23.30: Firework display in honour of Santa Maria Liberatrice
Spot on with this write-up, I truly think this website needs much more consideration. Ill probably be again to read much more, thanks for that info.
Comments are closed.