Among the patrons of Viggianello is Saint Francis of Paola, celebrated in the first week after Easter and on the last weekend of August, with the «Pitu» festival and tree rites involving the whole town.
In the woods of the Pollino massif, and on Viggianello's «lower» mountain, trees are felled — the pitu and the rocca — meant to be dragged into town by oxen. Before being moved, the animals (the paricchi) and their drivers (the gualani) are blessed in front of the church. On Thursday the trees are felled, on Friday the rocca, the fir tree, the «female» element that will end up atop the greasy pole; on Saturday the oxen laboriously drag them into town, amid nights spent in the mountains, dances and traditional music on button accordion, accordion and bagpipe. On Sunday the pole is raised in the square, accompanied by the religious procession: a rite some trace back to the 16th-century Spanish conquerors, given its resemblance to similar traditions in Portugal.
