Patron saint festival In 158 days
Feast of Saint Benedict
📅 Every year, on 21 March and 11 July
The principal patron of Europe was born here, in 480. Norcia celebrates him on 21 March, the day of his death at Montecassino, and on 11 July.
Around 480 AD, Saint Benedict was born here — father of Western monasticism and patron of Europe: his rule, "ora et labora", set out from this basin beneath the Sibillini mountains. The 2016 earthquake wounded Norcia badly, basilica included; reconstruction advances, and visiting today is also an act of support for a community that never gave up.
The other vocation lives in the common noun the town gave the Italian language: norcineria, the butcher's craft. Cured meats, IGP prosciutto and prized black truffle — celebrated in late February at Nero Norcia — remain the reason gourmets climb up here. Castelluccio and its flowering plateau are half an hour away.
The Norcia guide
What to see 7
basilica di San Benedetto · chiesa della Madonna Bianca · chiesa di San Salvatore and 4 more
Where to stay 22
22 places to stay · top rated: La Casetta di Lola 9.6 · Albergo Fontanelle 9.5
Events & festivals 1
Next up: Feast of Saint Benedict, Sunday 21 March
Getting there
Nearest airport: Perugia San Francesco, 58 km away
Norcia is part of 🏘️ Villages 🍷 Food & wine 🏔️ Mountains
Tours, tickets and experiences
Bookable on GetYourGuideExperiences in Norcia
🎉 Festivals and feasts in Norcia 1
No events match these filters.
What to see in Norcia
basilica di San Benedetto Built over the birthplace of Saints Benedict and Scholastica, this historic Norcia basilica reopened in Octobe 
chiesa della Madonna Bianca A 14th-century church near Norcia, famous for its marble relief of the Madonna Bianca by Francesco di Simone F 
chiesa di San Salvatore Historic Romanesque church near Norcia built over a Roman temple, largely destroyed in the 2016 earthquakes. 
chiesa di Sant'Andrea Campi's fourteenth-century parish church, badly hit in 2016; its medieval treasures now rest in Spoleto. 
chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grazie Hilltop church of Campi Vecchio, destroyed in the 26 October 2016 earthquake; today a place of memory. 
concattedrale di Santa Maria Argentea Norcia's co-cathedral, rebuilt in Neoclassical style after historic quakes, was heavily damaged in 2016. Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Norcia
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Norcia, but an easy day trip away.
Castello Sanfelice 📍 Bagnoli del Trigno · 4.1 km At 783 metres above Bagnoli, the fortress that guarded the Castel di Sangro-Lucera drove road. chiesa di San Silvestro 📍 Bagnoli del Trigno · 4.5 km A church with no façade, wedged between two rocks, and a crucifix with jointed arms. Castello d'Evoli 📍 Castropignano · 9.4 km Legend gives it 365 rooms: the d'Evoli stronghold above the Biferno valley Santuario italico di Pietrabbondante 📍 Pietrabbondante · 11 km The theatre and temples where the Pentri Samnites gathered their senate, above the Trigno. castello D'Alessandro 📍 Pescolanciano · 11 km A drawbridge finished in 1691, relics in the ducal chapel, German officers in 1943. torre di Oratino 📍 Oratino · 12 km A doorway high above the ground and a ladder to haul up: the Norman tower of Oratino.