Sagra dei osei

It is the oldest bird hunting fair in Italy. For the entire duration of the festival, restaurants and the kitchen of the Sagra dei Osei in Cisano association will offer famous local dishes, along with musical evenings and different kinds of entertainment.
Taste the memory of long-gone times...

The Origins of the Festival

During the first half of the last century, the area was almost entirely inhabited by peasants. To fight hunger, the farmers also hunted and fished. Fishing was easy on the lake, but hunting was also possible because of a migration route passing through the Garda area. Birds regularly flew over our areas, from north north-east to warmer climates for the winter. In the 13th century, bird fairs were established. Some of them still take place today.

It was around that time that the noblemen, who owned the land, reserved for themselves the right to hunt non-migratory game, mostly furred game, allowing the common people to hunt birds with nets, which they already did to assuage hunger. This brought about the need to find nets and appropriate tools to hunt birds, and so the fairs were born. Even though there is no certain proof, it seems very likely that the "Sagra dei osei" or "Festival of the Birds" also started then.

One sure fact is that the fair was moved to Cisano in 1840, as Father G. Agostani wrote in his book about the town in 1939: "I can only report one tradition, that the owner of the Pergolana [a villa and monastery] wrote about...he recorded that the function in the Church of the Holy Virgin in the Pergolana was held on the 8th of September...on that day, the yearly fair was also held at the Pergolana...it was moved to Cisano (1840) and although it is now held there, it is still known today as the Fair of the Pergolana."

In Cisano, the festival became very popular, and as a matter of fact the Italian weekly newspaper La Domenica del Corriere, on 20 September 1903, published a cover drawn from real life by the painter Beltrame with the caption: The Picturesque Bird Fair in Cisano. This shows that, although some festivals may pride themselves in an ancient tradition, one hundred years ago ours was the most famous bird fair in Italy.