The Corsa dei Ceri (the Race of the Candles) in Gubbio on May 15 is consistently described in Italian tourism literature as "one of the most spectacular festivals in Italy", a description that is accurate and inadequate simultaneously. The Corsa is spectacular, but its specific quality isn't the spectacle but the depth: this is a festival with documented continuous history since at least 1151 (the date of the earliest archival reference, though the tradition almost certainly predates the documentation), organized by a civic structure (the "ceraioli", the teams of men from specific Gubbio neighborhoods who carry the ceri through the streets) that has changed in costume and format but not in basic structure since the medieval period, and experienced by the Eugubini (the Gubbio residents) with an intensity of civic identification that outsiders initially mistake for ordinary festival enthusiasm but quickly recognize as something closer to a shared religious experience with civic content.
The ceri themselves are not "candles" in the wax-and-flame sense, they are large wooden octagonal prisms (approximately 4-5 meters tall, weighing several hundred kilos) topped with statues of three saints: Sant'Ubaldo (the patron saint of Gubbio, carried by the masons guild), San Giorgio (the merchants), and Sant'Antonio Abate (the farmers). The race isn't a race in the competitive sense, the Sant'Ubaldo ceraioli always win, and have always won, and will always win, because Sant'Ubaldo is the patron and his team's precedence is the point of the event rather than an outcome to be contested.
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The Corsa dei Ceri: Complete Guide
The Structure of the Day
The May 15 festival begins at dawn (approximately 6am) with the "Alzata", the raising of the ceri from their year-round resting place in the Palazzo dei Consoli. The ceri are raised vertically, a process requiring dozens of ceraioli working in coordination, and carried in procession to the Piazza della Signoria for the first public celebration. At noon, the ceri are carried to the Cathedral for the religious ceremony. At 18:00, after the run-up ceremony at Piazza della Signoria, the race begins: the three teams of ceraioli run through the medieval streets of Gubbio with the ceri on their shoulders (the specific carrying technique, the heavy wooden structure balanced on the men's shoulders with horizontal poles, requires years of practice and produces the specific swaying, tilting race through the narrow streets), ascending from the Piazza della Signoria to the Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo on the Monte Ingino above the city. Total race duration: approximately 7 minutes of running for the Sant'Ubaldo team.
Corsa Ceri Gubbio: tours & tickets
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The best viewing positions: the Piazza della Signoria for the pre-race ceremony (arrive by 16:30 for any interior position, the piazza is medieval-scale and fills completely). The narrow streets of the historic center at any point along the race route (Via dei Consoli and Via Baldassini are the widest points, stand here for the most dramatic passing shot as the ceri tilt around corners). And the Basilica di Sant'Ubaldo on the Monte Ingino for the arrival ceremony (accessible by cable car from the town or on foot, the arrival at the basilica, when the Sant'Ubaldo team arrives first and the other two teams circle back, is the emotional culmination of the day). Accommodation: Gubbio hotels fill for May 15 by February. Book months in advance.
Q&A: Corsa dei Ceri Gubbio
Why does Sant'Ubaldo always win?
Because the Corsa dei Ceri isn't a competition, it is a ritual procession. The three ceri represent three aspects of Gubbio's civic and social identity (the patron saint, the commercial class, the agricultural class). The order of arrival at the basilica mirrors the civic hierarchy rather than determining it. The Sant'Ubaldo team always arrives first because Sant'Ubaldo's precedence as patron saint is a given, not a stake. This is the specific quality of the Corsa that most outsiders misunderstand: there is no dramatic outcome possible because the outcome is predetermined and always has been. The drama is in the performance of the predetermined, the racing without uncertainty, which is itself the most specifically ancient form of ritual performance.
