Roma Baccalà

Roma Baccalà: the pilgrims' fish at Parco Schuster

Roma Baccalà is a food and wine festival that transforms Parco Schuster, in the Ostiense-San Paolo district of Rome, into a grand narrative centered on salt cod and stockfish every September. The event takes place in front of the Papal Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, one of the city's four major basilicas, in a corner of the Lazio region where religious devotion and popular culture have intertwined for centuries.

A food that unites cultures and religions

Salt cod and stockfish—cod preserved by salting or drying—have always been both peasant food and festive fare. At Roma Baccalà, this fish becomes a pretext to explore the connections between food, religion, history, and travel: from the lean meals of Christian Fridays to the traditions of Roman Jewish cuisine, and from the routes of Northern European fishermen to the tables of the Mediterranean. Talks, meetings, and in-depth discussions involve historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and nutritionists alongside chefs at the stove.

The format: show cooking, talks, and tastings

The event spans four days with free admission. The heart of the festival is the show cooking, featuring chefs and traditional Roman and Lazio taverns reinterpreting salt cod in both traditional and contemporary ways. The program includes:

• guided tastings and food stalls with local products;
• cultural talks on food, local markets, and the historical routes of preserved fish;
• thematic areas dedicated to guest regions and their specialties;
• shows and workshops for children and families.

The setting: Ostiense and the Basilica of Saint Paul

Parco Schuster, named after Cardinal Ildefonso Schuster, is located along Via Ostiense and overlooks the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, a pilgrimage destination along the Via Francigena of the South. This location gives the festival a strong symbolic identity: salt cod as the food of the pilgrim and the traveler, a common thread that the event explores each year with spaces dedicated to the pilgrimage and the scallop shell of Saint James.

An event born in Garbatella

Roma Baccalà was founded in the Garbatella district, in Piazza Damiano Sauli, and over the years has moved to the larger setting of Parco Schuster, still within Rome's Municipality VIII. The festival is promoted by Un/Lab and has established itself as one of the most original autumn gastronomic events in the capital, capable of combining the popular tradition of Lazio with an international perspective on the culture of preserved cod.