Scylla: "Evviva Sant'a Roccu," the feast of the patron saint.

The cult of St. Roch

The cult of St. Roch was established in Scylla around the middle of the eighteenth century, when it was considered a miracle to have escaped the plague epidemic that a few years earlier had wreaked havoc in the other cities of the Straits. Merit of the pilgrim saint and thaumaturge, so they convinced themselves in Scylla, who had known him by frequenting the foundations of Venice, a city that had repeatedly come out of the plague by invoking his intercession. Such was the gratitude of the people of Scylla that they wanted him as their patron in place of St. George, going so far as to consecrate a new church to him within a few years.

What to see: the neoclassical church

Crossing its threshold, the eye runs to the high altar, truly remarkable for its neoclassical forms and polychrome marble. The focal point, however, is the gilded niche with the alabastrine statue of St. Roch, depicted as usual in pilgrim clothing, in the act of showing a plague boil on his leg. A fifteenth-fifteenth-century work, it is believed that it may be by a Venetian artist, precisely because of the custom the Scillesi had with the Serenissima.

The "Iurnata i Santa Rroccu"

On the feast day of the saint, wanting to carry him in procession through the city streets, it became necessary to have an effigy that was more practical to handle than the one in the church. Hence the meaning of the life-size wooden statue by an unknown 18th-century author, which almost steals the show from the more precious icon. In the imminence of the weekend following August 16, therefore, the bearers are chosen who , in teams of twelve, will have the honor of escorting it up and down the narrow steps of Scilla's neighborhoods to the sound of the civic band: on Saturday between Chianalea and Marina Grande; on Sunday in the neighborhood of San Giorgio, ending the tour in the square in front of the patronal church.

The key moment of the feast comes in the evening, when the saint is paraded around under a cascade of fireworks, pinwheels, fountains and rockets. It is the so-called Trionfino, to the cry of "Evviva Sant'a Roccu," a unique fireworks display that draws to the square not only the entire population and tourists of the moment, but also many emigrants who return to the village for it as well. Then, festively, people wait for midnight when the Marina Grande beach fills with crowds to watch the fireworks over the sea, the seal of the "Iurnata i Santa Rroccu."