La Fiera di Grottaferrata (Grottaferrata Fair).
La Fiera di Grottaferrata or National agricultural, commerce, crafts and small industry fair.
La Fiera Nazionale di Grottaferrata (The Grottaferrata National Fair or simply Grottaferra Fair), is a really important fair held in the month of March in Grottaferrata, the famous town of Castelli Romani.
The Fair has its origins in the Middle Ages and in occasions of worship, and today it is a very important showcase at a national level for what concerns trade, craftsmanship, small industry, and in particular agricultural machinery.
The Fair arose more or less spontaneously around the Abbey of San Nilo (Abbazia di San Nilo), built in 1004, with the numerous pilgrims who, on the occasion of the feast of the Annunciation of the Lord (25 March) and the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (08 September ) came to visit this imposing religious building. The need to feed the pilgrims and satisfy the needs of this large river of people attracted more and more traders and gave rise to an intense exchange of goods.
The fair developed along the two main access roads to the abbey, those which today bear the name of San Nilo and Corso del Popolo.
The first official fairs were held in September, and it was only in 1462 that the Grottaferrata Fair was set in March by Pope Pius II, as the Feast of the Annunciation was considered the more important event of the two.
Initially the Fair saw itself as the protagonist of numerous violent acts, as "the plebs exude wine", as the pontiff himself noted.
Certainly, the high influx of people, hunger, fatigue, as well as the opportunity for some to obtain a profit at the expense of less well-off people, certainly created an explosive and difficult to manage environment.
Thus, by will of Pius II, severe penalties were established for those who went around armed, including life imprisonment for those found in possession of particularly dangerous weapons.
The September Fair actually survived, and is the one that still bears the name Ce Stava 'Na Vota (“once upon a time”).
Over the years the two fairs have diversified greatly from each other, and if the second is more of a historical re-enactment of the ancient fairs, La Fiera di Grottaferrata has established itself as one of the most important showcases at a national level for exhibition and sales of agricultural materials and craftsmanship.
The name of the event itself was changed by a ministerial decree to "national agricultural, commerce, crafts and small industry fair", which institutionalized its importance in the national (and international) panorama.
Today La Fiera di Grottaferrata is a really modern space with tensile structure pavilions covering an area of 14,000 square metres. The current location of the Fair is in the asphalted square between Via San Nilo and Via del Grottino.
For info https://www.fieradigrottaferrata.it/
