ISAP, the international prosciutto fair in Tinjan

Tinjan lies 10 km west of Pazin on the road to Poreč; from the A8 motorway take the Pazin exit. Parking is set up in the fields around the village. Registration for the record attempt: svjetskirekord.prijave@tinjan.hr or +385 52 626 090.

How the three days run

Friday opens the fair and ends with the first of the 3 evening concerts. Saturday is the full day: producers from Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Spain and further afield at their stands, guided tastings and workshops, and the sports programme around the village. Sunday winds down with the last stalls and the closing band. You can join the record attempt if you can slice a ham cleanly, with or without a trade certificate. The municipality publishes the hour of the attempt, the tasting slots and the stall times on tinjan.hr and central-istria.com shortly before the fair. No entry price had been announced at the time of writing.

Getting to Tinjan

The nearest airport is Pula, about 50 km to the south and roughly 60 minutes by car. Pula has fewer flights in October, so Rijeka, Trieste and Zagreb airports, all within 2 hours 30 minutes by road, are worth checking. A hire car is the practical choice: Tinjan has no railway station and only a few buses a day. The nearest station is Pazin, on the slow line from Pula to Buzet, and Pazin also has the regional bus station with services to Poreč, Pula, Rijeka and Zagreb. From Pazin the last 10 km is a taxi ride, so ask your accommodation about a transfer.

Where to stay

Tinjan itself has a handful of rooms and holiday houses, in the village and in the hamlets around it, and they go first because the concerts end late and nobody wants to drive afterwards. Book the Friday and Saturday nights by early summer. Pazin, 10 km east, has small hotels and guesthouses and is the base if you arrive by train or bus. Poreč, 25 km west, has the widest choice of hotels on this side of Istria, most still open in October. Motovun, 20 km north, suits a hill-town stay close to the truffle fairs in Livade.

Around Tinjan

The village takes 30 minutes on foot: the loggia, the parish church and the view south over the Limska Draga, the dry valley that runs from here to the Lim bay. The fair fills the square, so walk out to the edge of the ridge for the view. Everything in the list is within 30 minutes by car, and Pazin and Beram fit into a morning before the stalls open.

• Kringa, 4 km south: home of Jure Grando, the first person in Europe named as a vampire in a written record, in the 17th century.
• Beram, 6 km east: the Danse Macabre frescoes of 1474 in the church of St Mary of the Rocks, opened on request by a keyholder in the village.
• Pazin, 10 km east: the castle with the Ethnographic Museum of Istria and the Pazin chasm below it, where the Pazinčica river vanishes underground.
• Motovun, 20 km north: the walled hill town above the Mirna valley and the forest where the white truffles are dug in October.
• Poreč, 25 km west: the Euphrasian Basilica with its 6th century mosaics, on the UNESCO list.

Where to eat

The stalls are the main meal: producers cut pršut to order and sell it by the slice or the piece, and Istrian cheese, olive oil and wine stands set up beside them. The konobas in and around Tinjan serve the central Istrian standard: pršut and cheese to start, fuži or pljukanci with truffles, maneštra, ombolo with cabbage, and Malvazija or Teran by the glass. Tables fill early on the concert evenings, so reserve. Pazin has more restaurants and a bakery for breakfast.

Practical notes

Mid October in central Istria brings days of 15 to 20 degrees Celsius, cool evenings and a fair chance of rain, and the bura can blow hard on the ridge. Pack a jacket and closed shoes: the parking fields turn to mud after a wet night. Croatia uses the euro and the stalls run largely on cash, so bring notes from Pazin or Poreč. Daytime suits children, with the sports programme and open space around the square. The concerts are loud and late. Check your own country's rules before buying ham to carry home: the US and Australia do not allow pork products in luggage, and Great Britain has barred pork from the EU since 2025.