Il Borgo e i suoi Presepi

Why it's special

The centrepiece is the presepe of the 'Babacci', life-size figures made by Cocconato artists, with a carpenter, a knife-grinder, a basket-maker, a blacksmith, a baker and the rest of a Palestinian village, set along the staircase and round the parish church and lit after dark. Each year adds new characters. Cocconato is also one of the founding villages of the Oro Incenso Mirra nativity circuit.

Programme · 2026

Nativity scenes along the streets of the old centre, the Presepi d'Artista exhibition and the life-size presepe at the parish church. Programme not yet published by the Comune (as of 5 October 2026).

• The street presepi and the life-size scene can be seen any time, and they're lit at night.
• The 'Presepi d'Artista' show in the Salone Comunale keeps shorter hours: in 2025 it was open 14:30–18:00 on days before holidays and 11:00–12:30 and 14:30–18:00 on Sundays and holidays (closed on Christmas Day).
• Groups book on +39 0141 600076.
• The Christmas market comes a week or so before, and the vintage market runs on the second Saturday of December.

For a month over Christmas, Cocconato's old centre becomes a nativity trail. Residents, shopkeepers and people with holiday homes in the village put presepi in their shop windows, house windows and odd corners along the streets. The Salone Comunale holds the 'Presepi d'Artista', work by the Artigiani del Presepe of Turin. Adriana Gandini's crochet presepe, well known by now, has a new setting each year.

The scene people come for is the life-size presepe at the parish church of Santa Maria della Consolazione. Cocconato artists have filled the staircase and the space round the church with 'babacci', full-size figures of the people who would have filled a village market in Jesus's time: the carpenter, the knife-grinder, the basket-maker, the blacksmith, the baker, the fishmonger, the shepherd and the weaver, beggars and a leper among them, all in period dress. Through a stone arch at the top of the steps the route ends at the stable. In a realistic touch, Mary is visibly pregnant until 25 December. It's lit at night, and new characters are added every year.

Since 2016 Cocconato has been part of Oro Incenso Mirra, the circuit of nativity villages across the Monferrato it founded with Aramengo, Albugnano and Schierano. The Christmas market comes a week or so before the presepi open, and there's a Christmas concert in the parish church. See what else is on in Cocconato.