The patron saint of Camaiore is the Most Holy Name of Jesus, celebrated on 1 June: during the feast, the monograms that many town houses have set above their entrance doorways are adorned with flower garlands. The feast was established by the Magnificent Council of Camaiore on 14 June 1528, following a sermon given in the Camaiore castle, presumably around 1424, by Saint Bernardine of Siena, who called on the population to show devotion to the name of Christ.
Camaiore, whose name derives from the Latin Campus Maior, lies in Versilia, south-west of the Apuan Alps; in the Middle Ages it grew thanks to the ancient Via Francigena, which from Lucca continued towards Lunigiana and the Cisa Pass, passing precisely through Campo Maggiore, where the monastery of San Pietro had already stood since 761, today the abbey of San Pietro di Camaiore. In 1225 or 1226 the commune of Lucca, to secure safe access to the port of Motrone, attacked and forcibly occupied the castles of Camaiore, mostly allied with the Pisans, then organising the territory into a large vicariate. The parish church of Santo Stefano, documented since the 9th century along the Via Francigena, is the oldest church in the municipal territory.
