Fair of Saints

Last Sunday of October, Vinadio


The Fair of Saints takes place every year in autumn, on the last Sunday of October, in the suggestive bastions of the Albertino Fort of Vinadio with the presence of shepherds and Sambucane sheep, surrounded by almost ten thousand visitors from both Italy and neighbouring France. Until the mid-1980s the ancient fair took place on the day of the dead and was an important moment for the marketing of snails, potatoes (bòdis), cattle and especially sheep, which arrived on foot from all over the Valley, travelling the previous night. Since the 1970s, however, the presence of animals has been considerably reduced due, among other things, to a new system of marketing sheep and cattle garments directly on the holding. The inclusion of the exhibition of the Sambucana sheep, started quietly in 1986 with about fifty garments, has gradually revived the Fair of Saints becoming its main moment to date.