The history of 'Nzegna

The "Nzegna", a popular and religious tradition linked to the cult of the Madonna SS. Maria di Belvedere, whose image is placed inside the Basilian crypt on the homonymous hill, originates from the legend of a Lord of Conversano who seriously ill , "a Matrona dressed in stars" came to him in a dream who invited him, for his recovery, to go to Carovigno in the Belvedere district to find his painted image in the cave. After a long search, a herdsman, looking for a lost heifer, found it "on his knees" inside this cave, in front of the painting of the Madonna. Taken by so much emotion and immense joy, he attracted the attention of the neighboring peasants, tying a colored handkerchief to his stick and began to throw it in the air.