On the last Sunday in August is celebrated a great bonfire, “gran farò” in Piedmontese. It consists of burning a pile of 300 or 400 faggots around an 8-metre high pole that is now made of metal, but until a few decades ago was made of chestnut. The bundles are tied with a wire at the top and crowned with a bunch of flowers. The bonfire is erected in the churchyard of the Martiniana chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Graces and Saints Rocco – protector against contagion – and Chiaffredo – the most venerated saint in the Po valley. In fact, this annual celebration has its origins in the devastating plague of 1630, an epidemic from which only the remotest parts of the valley supposedly remained unscathed. The bonfire recalls the purifying fire used to burn the clothes of the people who were infected.