The patron of Castellana Grotte is Maria Santissima della Vetrana, celebrated on 12 January and on the last Sunday of April. The devotion was born of a precise event: deliverance from the plague, which the townspeople credited to the intercession of the Virgin, and for which the town's religious and civic authorities decided to give thanks every year.
The eve is the part you can see from far off. On 11 January the Fanòve are lit: great stacks of wood burning throughout the town, a popular tradition as deeply rooted in Castellana as the feast itself.