The origins of the festival are a lot older and the event is still surrounded by fierce debate. The website www.imisteri.it has many beautiful sepia images and an even rarer film from the 1935 version of the event. There is also an official history of the event.

Of particular curiosity is how the frameworks are made. From the above website:

"The machines, the framework are realized in iron structures applied on wooden base. The material they use is particularly a flexible one and it doesn’t break ... The persons are placed in order in a stuffed slinging with cotton-wool and leather, to reduce better the blows of the stress. The special slinging make the figures put above be settled with the greatest security without being bad for those who take place on the frameworks during the long crossing around the city".

The Misteri connect deep into the psyche of the Molisans and in the 16th century it was suspended for 60 years following a violent fight.