Thanks to our records, we know that Villar Focchiardo had two annual fairs since 1863:
the first took place on the third Thursday of April and the other one on the second
Sunday of October. Usually only crops and animals were sold on the first one and it
corresponded to our "Villar Focchiardo in Flower day". The second fair was dedicated
to chestnut selling and buying. It corresponds to the actual
"Sagra Valsusina del
Marrone e Mostra Mercato dei prodotti agricoli, ortofrutticoli, artigianali
e commerciali valsusini" (Chestnut Annual Fair, Exposition and Agriculture
Products Market of the Susa Valley).
Chestnut trees implantation on our mountains seemed to happen in the first millenary:
a tree can live for about 500 years and the older ones were between Villar Focchiardo
and San Giorio where, by the end of the 13th century, Templars were owners of one of biggest
chestnut trees fields of the Susa Valley. There are about 300 different kinds of chestnuts trees,
but chestnuts have particular characteristics that pastry cooks know well when they want to
cook frozen chestnuts, exported world-wide, even to Australia.
Chestnuts are symbol of our village and, in 1979, two characters were created: Pero the
Desbator who beats the chestnuts trees with his stick to make chestnuts fall, and Gepa
the Rapoloira, the woman who gathers the fallen chestnuts. These two characters not only take
part to the Chestnuts Fair but also go to other villages where Villar Focchiardo representatives
in costumes use to meet other people accompanied by the brusatairo (people in charge to burn
chestnuts in order to cook them), and the Barbis du Vilé (musicians).
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