Scroppella Festival

A Carnival treat celebrated in August

The Castelvetere scroppella is a sweet fritter that has been prepared for generations in Castelvetere in Val Fortore, in the heart of the Benevento Sannio, on Shrove Thursday. The dough is hand-kneaded, deep-fried in hot oil, and dusted with sugar as soon as it leaves the pan. It is this final dusting that traditionally places it among sweet treats rather than the savory fried foods of Carnival.

A few years ago, the community decided to dedicate a summer festival to it: the Scroppella Festival, which returns every year on August 5th, when the village fills up with those returning for their holidays. The treat thus steps out of the liturgical Carnival calendar to become, in the middle of August, the hallmark of an entire village.

The PAT recognition by the Campania Region

In March 2026, the Castelvetere scroppella was added by the Campania Region to the list of Traditional Agri-food Products (PAT), a designation established by ministerial decree in 1999 to protect artisanal preparations with a documented history of at least twenty-five years. Campania is the Italian region with the highest number of registered specialties—over six hundred—to which this Fortore fritter has now been added.

This achievement was the result of a collective effort: the Pro Loco of Castelvetere, led by president Luca Forte, managed the application with technical support from Valentina Pacifico and documentation by Giuseppe D'Agata, while the preparation of the scroppelle is entrusted to a group of volunteers gathered around Anna Forte. The flour comes from a local mill, supplied by Graziano Iarossi: a detail that speaks volumes about the short supply chain in these villages. The recognition was welcomed in the village with great enthusiasm, as it certifies a domestic tradition that risked remaining confined to a few private kitchens.

What to expect

The festival is a village event in the truest sense: the Pro Loco prepares and distributes the scroppelle, the residents act as hosts, and visitors arrive mainly from the neighboring towns of the Val Fortore and from the provincial capital. The schedule, exact tasting points, and any musical performances are not announced far in advance; as is typical in the small towns of the inland Sannio, announcements appear in the days immediately preceding the event on the Pro Loco's social media channels. The date, however, is fixed: August 5th.

Castelvetere in Val Fortore, a village at 700 meters

The Municipality of Castelvetere in Val Fortore is located in the Province of Benevento, in Campania, at an altitude of 706 meters in the upper Fortore valley, at the eastern edge of the Sannio. It has just over nine hundred inhabitants, a number that makes the festival even more significant, as it mobilizes a large portion of the resident population in a single day.

Those arriving for the festival will find a historic center worth exploring: the remains of a Norman circular tower in the oldest part of the village, the Church of San Nicola with its finely carved portal, the 18th-century Marquess Palace declared a national monument for its historical and artistic value, and the municipal park with mythological statues and mosaics dedicated to the zodiac signs. The village is mentioned as early as the 12th-century Catalogus baronum and has seen Norman, Swabian, Angevin, and Aragonese rule; in 1693, the title of Marquess passed to the Moscatelli family, who had purchased the fiefdom a few years earlier. To the northwest of the town lies the municipal forest, home to oaks, birds of prey, and owls.

Why it's worth the trip

• You get to taste a product not found in shops: the scroppella is, by definition, a homemade treat made by those who know the recipe.
• It is an opportunity to discover the Val Fortore, one of the least-traveled areas of inland Campania, halfway between Sannio, Molise, and Puglia.
• The altitude provides cool evenings even in mid-August, when the Campania coast is struggling with the heat.
• The 2026 PAT recognition has brought new visibility to the festival: future editions may grow significantly.