The "Horse of Fire"

The "Horse of Fire" (in local dialect "lu cavalla dë fuoca") is a historical reenactment held each year in Ripatransone (Ascoli Piceno), on the Sunday after Easter (April 15th, 2012).
It consists of a firework display, and for many local citizens, there is a strong emotional involvement. It draws several thousand spectators, residents of neighbouring towns and tourists coming from other regions and from abroad.

The tradition traces the origins of the horse to 10 May 1682, the day of the solemn coronation of the statue of the Virgin.
It was an blaster of the town of Atri, named for the opportunity to improvise for the first show. He rode a horse, which was all decorated with fireworks, on whom he rade around the square several times, always throwing rays and other oddities.
This fact excited the "ripani" (citizen of Ripatransone), so much that they performed it every year. At first they continued to use a live animal.

Later on the animal was replaced with a silhouette. Originally it was wooden, and until 1932 was carried on the shoulders of the most robust citizens.

Later it seemed to be more convenient to equip it with wheels and a drawbar and tow it by volunteers with protective clothes and accessories. In 1994 a new horse in sheet iron, modelled after the previous one, has taken the place of the wooden one.