Fiera Carolingia

Why it's special

It is one of the largest and oldest fairs in Piedmont, and its roots are written into the city's own medieval statutes: the Codice Catenato of the late 14th century already set out a fair around the feast of San Secondo, and ordered the podestà to invite merchants from other towns and guarantee their safety. Today some six hundred stalls spread across the centre for a single day, the last act of the San Secondo festivities.

Programme · 2026

• It is a weekday fair: the stalls are up from dawn to dusk, and mornings are the easiest time to walk it.
• Come a day early for the San Secondo feast on the Tuesday, with the Palio offering at the Collegiata and the soup handed out in Piazza San Secondo.
• Info: Comune di Asti, Servizio Manifestazioni, manifestazioni@comune.asti.it.

Asti's trading tradition goes back to the late Middle Ages, when its markets were divided by goods (hay, herbs, firewood, wine) and held in and around Piazza San Secondo. The city's statutes, the Codice Catenato of the late 14th century, already provided for two fairs a year. The first began eight days before the feast of San Secondo and ended eight days after it, in the lower part of town around today's Piazza Roma; the second ran from 1 to 16 November. Fifteen days before each fair the podestà had to send invitations to other cities and towns, promising their people freedom of movement and safety while they stayed in Asti.

The Fiera Carolingia is what the spring fair has become. It now lasts a single day, the Wednesday after the San Secondo feast, and takes over most of the historic centre: Piazza Alfieri, Piazza San Secondo, Corso Alfieri, Corso Dante, Corso alla Vittoria and the streets around them. Expect a traditional town fair rather than a craft market, with stalls selling goods of every kind, food and non-food.

It is the closing day of the Festa di San Secondo, and one of the three fairs the Comune holds in the centre each year, with the Fiera di Primavera in spring and the Fiera di Autunno in October. See what else there is to do in Asti.