There is a moment, in Gubbio, when the mountain seems to be made of lights. It happens every year, when the largest Christmas tree in the world prepares to become visible again from kilometers away, transforming the profile of Mount Ingino into an image that now belongs to the collective imagination. The 2025 edition of the “Gubbio è… Natale” project was presented in the Spadolini Room of the Ministry of Culture, confirming once again how much this tradition has become part of the Italian Christmas story. A set of events that mixes art, spirituality and an extraordinary organizational capacity, destined to converge on the evening of December 7th, when the mountain will light up before the eyes of thousands of people.
Amerigo Vespucci as testimonial
During the presentation, in the presence of representatives of the Ministry of Culture, the testimonial of the forty-fifth commissioning was announced, namely the Amerigo Vespucci Training Ship, with Commander Nicasio Falica representing the Navy. A choice that aims to ideally connect the elegance of the sailing ship most loved by Italians with the evocative strength of the Gubbio Tree. A union between different traditions that share a common trait: the commitment to safeguarding and passing on a collective heritage.
A titanic work that lives thanks to volunteers
Behind what tourists photograph as if it were a technological miracle lies a much simpler, almost disarming reality: everything comes from the free work of a group of volunteers. People who, year after year, challenge slopes, uncertain weather and hours stolen from their free time to draw a luminous figure almost as large as thirty football fields. The Tree takes shape thanks to hundreds of light points placed along the side of the mountain, the base stretches for 450 metres, while the top reaches 750 meters up to the Basilica of Sant’Ubaldo, which has been observing the city from above for almost a thousand years.
Talking about the Guinness Book of Records in this case is not a whim, but the observation of an enterprise that has managed to renew itself for more than four decades, always in the same spirit, always with the same dedication. Anyone who knows Gubbio knows this: the reputation as the “city of madmen” comes from an affectionate irony, but also finds roots in gestures like this, in which madness coincides with passion.
A tree that unites the world
Alongside the large light installation, there is a project that has now become an integral part of the initiative, called “Adopt a light”. One of the lamps can be dedicated to a loved one, a memory, a message that you want to entrust to that luminous mountain. In 2024, membership exceeded 15,000, coming from 65 different countries, a figure that speaks of a need as simple as it is ancient: to leave a mark, even a small one, in a place that seems to hold something good.
The company’s numbers
There is a particular charm in the numbers of the Gubbio Tree, because they convey the concreteness of a work which, seen from afar, risks appearing to be the result of who knows what devices. In reality, behind the manifest magic there is a system as impressive as it is artisanal:
When light becomes identity
Every December 7, the lighting ceremony becomes a sort of collective ritual. A tradition that has seen, over the years, symbolic figures such as Pope Francis, Giorgio Napolitano, Benedict XVI and many others as protagonists. Presences called to press a button that represents more than a simple switch on: it is the gesture that officially inaugurates Christmas in Gubbio, a moment that the city experiences as a gift to share with those arriving from outside.
