Gubbio’s tree isn’t exactly a tree. It’s really a light display – albeit a dazzling vast one. The Christmas tree in Gubbio, Italy, which covers over 1,000 square meters, features thousands of lights and is easily one of the world’s most iconic Christmas trees. It’s enough to make any normal Chrimbo tree look a bit puny, a bit pathetic.
The tree consists of lighting fixtures of various kinds so as to make a very special, unique color effect: over 250 green lights outline the shape of a Christmas tree over 650 meters high, with over 300 multicolored lights scattered in the central body and at the top a star about 1,000 square meters wide, made over 200 points of light.
“The largest Christmas tree in the world” has been launched first in 1981, and it is a tree of colored lights realized in Gubbio on the slopes of Monte Ingino. The roots sink into the walls of the village, while the star is at the top where the Basilica of Sant’Ubaldo, patron saint of Gubbio, is located.
The lighting of the Tree takes place every year on December 7th at 6.30 pm from Piazza Gramsci. Every year an important guest is invited to turn on the lights: in 2014 the lights of the tree were lit by Pope Francis. The tree overlooks Gubbio, an ancient medieval city in the Italian region of Umbria. Famed for its Roman ruins and historic aqueduct, it’s about a two-and-a-half hours’ drive from both Rome and Florence.
If you fancy visiting, the tree lights will be on from December 7, 2022, to January 12, 2023.
According to timeout / italyheritage
