For two weeks between late August and early September, Orte stops the clock and travels back six hundred years. The Ottava Medievale — the Ottava de Santo Egidio — is one of the most authentic historical re-enactments in Lazio: not a show staged for tourists, but a festival the village's seven contrade prepare all year long, with roots documented as far back as 1396, when Pope Boniface IX gave it solemn status.
The 2026 dates: August 31 to September 13
The 55th edition opens on August 31, 2026 and culminates on Sunday September 13. This year's theme is "Septem. Un numero tra sacro e profano" ("Septem: a number between the sacred and the profane"), a journey into the symbolic power of the number seven in medieval culture — a number Orte knows well: seven are the contrade that compete for the festival.
What happens at the Ottava
Each evening a different contrada opens its streets and its taverns, where you dine on traditional dishes among torches, musicians and costumed performers. The programme alternates historical parades, performances, early-music concerts, games for families and markets. The grand finale is the Palio degli Arcieri, the Archers' Palio: the seven contrade compete with medieval wooden bows to win the silver ring.
Why it is worth the trip
Orte is a spectacle in its own right — a tufa crag rising above the Tiber, with an intact historic centre and an underworld of Etruscan caves and tunnels. During the Ottava the village is at its very best: no modern lights in the festival streets, only fire, stone and voices. It is the kind of evening children remember for years.
Where to stay for the Ottava of Orte
Villa Vacanze Valentina is in Bassano in Teverina, about 15 minutes by car from Orte: you can dine in a tavern and be back at the villa in a quarter of an hour. Pool and relaxation by day, the Middle Ages by night. See our holiday home with pool or ask us about availability for late August and September.
Photo: BobTanGo, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.