Every autumn, for more than five centuries, Rovigo has filled with stalls, lights and voices. This is the Fiera d’Ottobre, the October Fair. To understand why it exists, you have to go back to 1482.
In that year the Polesine was fought over by Venice and Ferrara, in the so-called War of Salt. The people of Rovigo, tradition says, were tired of changing masters with every season. Rovigo passed to the Venetian Republic (the Serenissima), and the fair was born in memory of that change.
In those days nobody came to the fair for the rides. They came for the animals. The Polesine, low-lying and marshy, was rich in pasture and ideal for raising oxen and horses. Polesine breeds were famous in the markets of the Veneto.
Livestock was bargained over on the Prato della Fiera, the fair meadow outside the San Francesco gate. The shops, meanwhile, took over the square and the arcades. And there was a sight that is hard even to imagine today: calves were displayed on boats moored in the Adigetto, the canal that then ran through the city. A fair on the water, in the heart of Rovigo.
At the end of the 16th century the date was fixed on 20 October. The fair began at eight in the evening and lasted eight days. In 1669 the mercato franco was introduced: a duty-free day, designed to encourage the livestock trade. From it comes the ‘martedì franco’, the free Tuesday, still held on the first Tuesday after 20 October.
But the fair was not only stables and deals. It had a cultured soul too. At the Teatro Lavezzo, today’s Teatro Sociale, the opera season drew audiences from the Polesine and from Venice. Many came to town by coach, especially for the occasion.
Today the cattle and the shops have given way to funfairs and candyfloss. The fair is the heart of the Ottobre Rodigino, a whole month of exhibitions, readings and talks. In 2024, according to the local press, the 541st edition took place.
And yet, beneath the lights of the rides, the calendar is the same as four centuries ago. Every October, those who stroll among the stalls renew, perhaps without knowing it, an ancient memory. Of a border crossed. Of a market of oxen and horses. Of calves displayed on boats, along the waters of the Adigetto.
