1432 · 2001 · 2032
A quarter of a century safeguarding the original recipe of baccalà mantecato (Venice's whipped stockfish cream). And a route already set for 2032.
Saturday 3 October 2026
Rialto Fish Market · Venice
from 5.30 pm
Free entry
The twenty-fifth anniversary celebration will be held under the neo-Gothic loggias of the Rialto Fish Market, the Pescheria di Rialto, overlooking the Grand Canal: a market alive at Rialto since 1097, and one the Confraternita already knows well, having opened SAOR 2025 there.
The evening's programme is below: it may change, and updates will be published on this page.
Three dates, one thread
1432
Shipwrecked in the Lofoten islands and rescued by the fishermen of Røst, the Venetian patrician Pietro Querini reached Venice again on 12 October with a provision of sixty stockfish. It was the beginning of a tradition now more than five centuries old.
2001
From an idea of Dino Boscarato, the Dogale Confraternita was born, presented at a solemn ceremony in the Scuola Grande San Giovanni Evangelista. It has safeguarded the original recipe of the mantecato ever since.
2032
On 12 October 2032, six hundred years will have passed since Querini's return. The twenty-fifth anniversary is not a closing celebration: it is the first stage of a six-year course linking the North and the lagoon.
The stick fish of the Lofoten islands: dried in the pale sun and icy winds of the North, as in Querini's day.
Saturday 3 October 2026 · from 5.30 pm
5.30 pm
A musical introduction by an ensemble blending the sounds of the North and the lagoon, and institutional greetings.
6.00 pm
Twenty-five years of the Dogale: an introduction to the evening and its story.
6.10 pm
Pietro Querini and the story of the stick fish as a European cultural treasure, with scholar Otello Fabris and other speakers to be confirmed.
6.30 pm
Moderated by Anna Maria Pellegrino: the memory of the founding members, the charter, the twinning with Bergen and the Lofoten islands, the route towards UNESCO recognition.
7.15 pm
Restaurateurs discuss how stockfish can become a food for the young. Moderated by Anna Maria Pellegrino and Franco Favaretto.
7.35 pm
The voyage of the stockfish, told by Dóra Svavarsdóttir, organiser of the exhibition of the same name.
7.40 pm
The presentation of the Seals of the 25th Anniversary, a toast with wine from the lagoon, and the musical finale.
8.00 pm
The evening continues at the stalls of the participating restaurants and bacari, Venice's traditional wine bars, with the tasting map of the recognised restaurants.
All evening long, at the heart of the market, the "Wall of the Wind": the reconstruction of a hjell, the Norwegian drying rack hung with stockfish, just as in the Lofoten islands.
From here to the six-hundredth anniversary
2026
Stage Zero: the route opens at Rialto in honour of those who safeguard the tradition.
2027
An international conference at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia rereads Querini's account as a fifteenth-century document on the Great North.
2028
The route joins Ancona and the Marche region, where stockfish is the heritage of many communities.
2029
The possible milestone of the path begun in 2023 towards recognition of stockfish traditions.
2030
The name joins stockfish and bridge: a nod to the Rialto Bridge and a symbol of the bond between North and South.
2031
Taking stock of the first five years as a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.
2032
The culminating moment: six hundred years since Pietro Querini's return, on 12 October.
The choice of venue is part of the message. The market has stood at Rialto for more than nine centuries, and it has always been the place of fish: bringing the mantecato here means returning it to its natural habitat, to the very spot where Venice's tradition of sea and trade still comes alive every morning.
It is also the right setting for the Dogale: an open, popular place where the whole city passes through. Not a closed hall, but the product's home.
How it went last time: the SAOR 2025 evening at the Pescheria (in Italian) →
Tradition is safeguarded in good company: join the Confraternita before the party.
