The Historical Ride

With the historic ride Bovino celebrates its Protector, Maria S.S. of Valleverde, and recalls its past. The symbolic ritual of the offering of oil, by a municipality of the ancient Diocese, recalls the homage that the Civil Authorities gave to the Religious Authorities of the time at the Sanctuary to strengthen, thanks to the common devotion to Mary, the bonds between the Church and the local Municipality. The CORTEO, attended by the highest city, military and religious authorities of the neighboring countries, of the Province and of the ancient diocese, each with its own banner, is solemn and is composed of paintings in period costume that recall the most important moments of bovine history.

The first painting, preceded by a roll of drums and trumpet blasts, recalls the medieval era of the appearance of the Madonna to the carpenter Niccolò (1266) with the entrance into the city of the statue of the Madonna escorted by knights and ladies with the commoners. The second picture recalls the visit made to the sanctuary by the Serenissima Donna Maria d’Austria, sister of the King of Spain Philip IV and wife of Ferdinand of Austria, on the occasion of his stay in Bovino at the court of the Dukes Guevara in 1630. She will he arrived with an escort of 2000 men among infantry and horsemen. The eighteenth-century painting that represents the Duke Giovanni Maria Guevara and the Duchess Anna Maria Suardo (1750) follows with the following of notable families (Alfieri, Macchiarelli, Verzilli, Barone, Pisani).

The Guevara Dukes, lords of this land for about four centuries, on this occasion opened their stables and made horses and carriages available to the community to travel from the Sanctuary to the village. The folk group “La Contadinella” represents, together with others, the popular peasant tradition of the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s that always excelled in the devotion to Maria di Valleverde. The procession ends with the Notables of the ‘900 and with horsemen advancing on beautiful horses preceded by the local civil, military and religious authorities of the Province. The procession, preceded by the civil-religious rite at the sanctuary, starts from the entrance of the village, winds along the main street between two thick wings of people taken by great enthusiasm, proceeds towards the Ducal Castle up to the Cathedral where the blessing of the Knights by the Archbishop and subsequent return of all the participating groups on Corso V. Emanuele.

The “Historical Ride” is a moment of very high aggregation that unites the citizens of the entire mountain and provincial territory and effectively affects the tourism of the country that in this period sees its population tripling.
The Municipality of Bovino has always supported the event, but its technical-organizational management has always been entrusted to the Pro-Valleverde Committee and the PRO LOCO.