San Michele Livestock Fair Celebrates End of Grazing Season in Veronese Monte Baldo
The San Michele Livestock Fair is a traditional end-of-summer pasture event in the Veronese Monte Baldo. It is held today, Saturday, on the low plateau of Prada Bassa, between the Palazzina and the church of San Bartolomeo, at 950 meters above sea level.
The conclusion of the mountain grazing season, which this year in some cases has been anticipated due to the summer drought, is marked in the Veronese Baldo by the fair and the cattle exhibition of Prada. For the Trentino area, however, it is the Brentonico event, where shepherds and the «paghe» (cows) descend from the mountain huts and alpine pastures of the Baldense ridge towards the winter stables.
Meaning and Traditions
It is the celebration of the «descargar montagna», meaning the unloading of pastures from the alpine pastures after four months of summer grazing. An occasion for buying and selling, and for signing contracts, relying on the «mediator» who until a few years ago would clasp sellers’ and buyers’ hands, clapping them together in a ritual of contract that fades into the night of time.
Even today, at the San Michele Fair, mountain and low Veronese, Brescia, and Mantova dialects can be heard. You can admire «paghe» of the Frisona and Bruna Alpina breeds, carefully prepared for the exhibition and competition: heifers aged 8 to 14 months, calves from 14 to 22 months, heifers from 22 to 36 months, primiparous cows, adult cows, and «dry» cows showing swollen udders and fine herds.
Activities and Highlights of the Event
This is where vendors of livestock equipment and pasturage tools gather, along with many mountain dwellers, as well as curious locals and tourists from Italy and abroad.
Scenes and glimpses of past rural life still unfold in Prada, even if today tractors transport the cows. The life of the shepherd in the mountain hut has become the pursuit of an increasingly small number of people, who can be counted on two hands and choose to live exclusively in the mountain hut throughout the grazing season.
Festival Program and Ceremonies
The festivities include, from 8 to 9 a.m., the admission of livestock to the fair. From 9:30 a.m., the best specimens are examined by a jury. At 11 a.m., a mass is celebrated at the church of S. Bartolomeo, a 16th-century Romanesque country chapel with a single nave, a beautifully carved and inlaid wooden altar, and an altarpiece depicting the Madonna with Child between Saint Lawrence (left) and Saint Bartholomew (right).
At 12 p.m., there will be an award ceremony for the best cattle and a refreshment offered by the municipal administrations of San Zeno di Montagna and Brenzone, who organize the fair with the patronage of the Montane Community of Baldo and other mountain authorities.
Gastronomy and Other Activities
In the local restaurants, visitors can taste traditional dishes such as «tripe and pito coi capussi» (tripe and turkey with cabbage), while the festival continues into the evening with folk dancing.
The event, which began last night at 9 p.m. at Ca’ Montagna with the presentation of a volume on Veronese cheese curated by Angelo Peretti, «Far San Michel», will conclude tomorrow, Sunday, with an evening dance at Palazzina.
