Museo del Sodalizio dei Facchini di Santa Rosa

In Viterbo's San Pellegrino quarter, the Museum of the Facchini di Santa Rosa preserves the memory of the city's great festival tower. Models of past Macchine, early design drawings and mementoes of the bearers document a tradition inscribed by UNESCO in 2013 on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Why it matters

The Macchina di Santa Rosa is a towering structure carried on the shoulders of more than a hundred bearers through Viterbo on 3 September. The procession commemorates the 1258 transfer of the city's patron saint. The museum was established in 1994 by the Sodalizio, the association of the Facchini who carry the Macchina, preserving the tradition beyond the annual event.

What to notice

The display includes scale models of earlier Macchine, rebuilt for each edition through a municipal design competition. The oldest model represents the 1690 baldacchino; most others document twentieth-century designs. Wall displays preserve drawings of early Macchine. The ciuffi, protective shoulder cushions used by the bearers, include one associated with Pope John Paul II and another carried into space by Italian astronaut Roberto Vittori. Video footage documents the September procession.

Context and history

The Sodalizio represents the Facchini di Santa Rosa, who carry the tower along a route of roughly 1.2 kilometres from Piazza San Sisto up Via Santa Rosa. The municipal account describes more than one hundred bearers sharing the load and receiving the bishop's blessing before the procession. UNESCO inscribed the tradition on 4 December 2013 at the committee's eighth session in Baku, alongside other Italian shoulder-borne processions, including the Gigli di Nola, Varia di Palmi and Candelieri di Sassari. The museum opened in 1994 in a medieval building near Piazza San Pellegrino.