Spello's Infiorate

Flowers from the wild

Unlike flower displays that buy their blooms, the Spello groups gather their material in the countryside. Leaves and berries may be used, but petals are preferred, whether freshly picked or dried. Nothing wooden, and nothing synthetic, is allowed. Drying happens in the sun. A dried petal is sometimes chopped gently so that fine details hold their shape, yet it is never ground to powder, because the flower must still look like a flower. Collecting and preparing begin months ahead, and many groups work at it through the year to catch whatever is in season.

Origins and first records

The town's municipal archive holds the earliest written trace, from 1831. That October, bishop Ignazio Cadolini was expected in Spello. Francesco Nicoletti, the gonfaloniere, or chief magistrate, asked every householder on the main street to clear the ground outside their door of rubbish and to strew flowers and greenery along the route of the procession. Pictures also survive from the nineteenth century: Benvenuto Crispoldi, who lived from 1886 to 1923 and served as mayor of Spello, painted the Corpus Christi procession crossing the flower carpets.

Design and rivalry

The first carpets ran unbroken down the street and kept to simple patterns. Later they split into separate compositions, each larger and more ambitious, as groups of makers formed. From the middle of the 1960s the designs moved away from geometry and single symbols of Corpus Domini, and by the end of the 1980s most had a central picture. Every piece must be at least twelve metres long or twenty-four square metres in area, depending on whether it is a quadro, a single scene, or a tappeto, a carpet of repeating patterns. A competition began in the 1960s, first run informally by the clergy of the two main parishes, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Lorenzo Martire. The winner keeps a bronze statue of the poet Sesto Properzio for a year.

Beyond the town

Word of the Spello carpets travelled. Their makers have been asked to lay flowers for public figures, among them Pope John Paul II and the Italian presidents Sandro Pertini and Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, and to work abroad in Lourdes and Bethlehem. Recorded commissions include a carpet in Rome's Piazza del Popolo for the Jubilee in 2000 and one in Brussels during Italy's six-month presidency of the European Union in 2003. Since 2002 the artists have run their own association, Le Infiorate di Spello, to keep standards high and the custom going. It now counts close to a thousand members from more than forty groups.

How Spello's Infiorate is kept

Close to a thousand people take part, working in groups that each own a stretch of street. Drawings are marked out on the paving with chalk, using a grid of squares, or drawn on paper and fixed to the ground. Petals are then laid inside the outlines, layer over layer, with shading and perspective to give a three-dimensional look. No glue is used. The work runs through the night so that everything is fresh by morning. On Sunday the bishop carries the Blessed Sacrament along the route, walking over the completed pictures.

When and where

The custom is tied to the feast of Corpus Christi. In Spello the Blessed Sacrament is carried in procession on the Sunday morning, and the pictures are made on the night before, so the last petals go down before dawn. Because the feast moves with the Church calendar, the date is different each year.

The custom belongs to Spello, a town in Umbria, Italy, and it fills the historic centre, where the streets are narrow and the flower path runs for about a mile. It is strongest there, among the town's own groups of makers. Invitations have taken the same art to Rome, Lourdes, Bethlehem and other places, but the yearly event is Spello's.

What Spello's Infiorate means

The petals are laid for one purpose: to make a path for the Blessed Sacrament, which the bishop carries in procession. The subjects are religious, and makers treat the work as a kind of painting. Some works carry social questions as well. Nothing is meant to last, and the procession walks over the pictures. For the people of Spello the night is both devotion and a shared craft, and the effort of the groups is part of what the town offers.

Questions people ask about Spello's Infiorate

See also

Holy WeekThe solemn seven days leading to Easter, recalling the final week and Passion of JesusStations of the CrossA Christian prayer journey following fourteen moments of the Passion of JesusConclaveCardinals sealed in the Sistine Chapel, voting until two thirds agree on a new popeCamino de SantiagoA Christian walking pilgrimage across Europe to the shrine of Saint James in Spain

Good reading and sources

• Infiorate di Spello on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-14.