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Paper short abstract

The Italian village of Predappio appears ordinary, yet it is periodically transformed by pilgrimages paying tribute to Il Duce at his birth and burial site. Through ritualised movement, this paper examines how pilgrimage shapes polarised spaces and lateral encounters.

Paper long abstract

Predappio, a small Italian village of a few thousand inhabitants in northern Emilia Romagna, appears ordinary on most days: quiet streets, cafés, and little shops. Yet each year the village is transformed by pilgrimages paying tribute to Il Duce at his birth and burial site. The three main commemorative dates — Mussolini’s birth (29 July), his death (28 April), and the anniversary of the March on Rome (28 October) — mark moments when everyday life is suspended and the village ritualistically remade. During these commemorations, ordinary spaces become extraordinary through ritualised movement: pilgrims march from the main square to the cemetery, dressed in black, carrying flags and political objects. Souvenir shops selling t-shirts, busts, and memorabilia function as ritual hubs, distributing objects that materialise allegiance and organise co-presence. Walking routes, timed gatherings, and repeated gestures temporarily reconfigure the village through patterned movement and affect. At the same time, anti-fascist counter-demonstrations unfold along parallel routes, creating a polarised spatial choreography. Local residents, shops, authorities, and even observers form a lateral zone around these events, mediating tensions and shaping co-presence. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork during the centenary of the March on Rome in 2022, this paper shows how pilgrimage in Predappio does not simply recall political histories but actively enacts and sustains polarised political worlds. In doing so, it highlights how ritual, material objects, and embodied mobility operate across contested and lateral spaces, producing the village as an extra/ordinary site of political and social negotiation.