The village was called Palmula, and it earned its new name in an exchange. Tradition tells that around the year 720 Vitalianus, bishop of Capua, on pilgrimage to Montevergine, fell ill and stopped here; the few local farmers looked after him, and told him that it had not rained for far too long and the crops were drying up. The bishop told them not to worry, that the rain would come soon: it came the next day. Ever since, Palmula has been San Vitaliano.
The sign you see from a distance is the bell tower of the church of the Immacolata, forty-two metres high, put up in 1874 through the insistence of father Mariano Spiezia, who was from here: in the middle of the Nola plain it is what tells the village apart. Inside the church hangs an enormous painting, almost six metres wide, with the apotheosis of the Immaculate Virgin, signed by Angelo Mozzillo.
Pizza Napoletana · Caprese
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Next up: Saint Vitalianus of Capua, patron of the September Madre Santissima, Friday 16 July
Nearest airport: Napoli Capodichino, 17 km away
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📅 Every year, on 16 July; the third Sunday of September brings the feast of the Madre Santissima
San Vitaliano celebrates Saint Vitalianus of Capua on 16 July. In the church on via Frascatoli stands the statue of the Madre Santissima, whose feast falls on the third Sunday of September, the week after the patron's celebrations.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside San Vitaliano, but an easy day trip away.
