Bela nedeja in Kastav: young belica on the hill above Rijeka

Kastav pours its young belica for three days every October. Bela nedeja, “white Sunday” in the local Chakavian dialect, is the biggest holiday of the walled town on the hill above Rijeka and Opatija. Its central day is the first Sunday in October, and the fair fills the first weekend of the month, from Saturday to Monday. The Kastav statute of 1400 already mentions it. Wine stands, a market of stalls, concerts on three stages and fairground rides take over the old town. The town counted 75,000 visitors over the three days in 2024.

Bela nedeja 2027

The central day of Bela nedeja falls on the first Sunday in October, according to the Office of the President of Croatia and the Rijeka daily Novi list. By that tradition, the next white Sunday is Sunday 3 October 2027. The Town of Kastav has not yet announced the 2027 dates or programme. In 2026 the tourist board and the town published the full programme on 23 and 28 September, about a week before the opening. The programme and the road closures appear on the websites of the Town of Kastav and the Kastav and Klana tourist board. Other dates for next year are in our guide to Croatia's festivals in 2027.

Debts, deals and the white Monday

Bela nedeja grew out of an old samanj, a market fair. By tradition it marked the end and the start of the business year, when people settled their debts and closed new deals, Novi list reports. The fair keeps its local names. Sunday is Bela nedeja. Monday, the last day, is Beli pundejak or posajmica, traditionally the day of the business people. Sunday at noon belongs to the “Pozdrav Beloj nedeje”, the traditional greeting to the fair on the main stage. The fair has been held under the patronage of the President of Croatia, and Zoran Milanović visited it in 2023.

Belica, Kastav's own wine

Belica is the white wine of Kastav. Strictly speaking it is a blend: the tourist board names the local varieties verdić, divjaka and mejsko, with some malvazija added. By the end of the 20th century belica was close to dying out. Kastav growers then worked on quality with the University of Rijeka's biotechnology department. The wine has since earned the top Croatian grade, vrhunsko vino. At the fair the stands pour the autumn's young belica next to many other wines, so ask for belica by name. Wine in Croatia is ordered by the decilitre, a deci. The Kuća belice interpretation centre in the old town tells the story of Kastav's vineyards, from clearing the stony ground to the vine diseases of the late 19th century.

What the fair offers

The programme changes every year, while the shape of the fair stays the same. Its pieces are spread across the old town:

• CrekVina wine festival at Crekvina, the unfinished Jesuit church: stands of Kastav growers, wineries from Krk and producers from the rest of Croatia, plus distillers. In 2026 it had 26 exhibitors and stayed open until midnight.
• Belica is poured at several points around the old town.
• Food stands cook mostly at Fortica, the old bastion by the town gate, with more on Lokvina square.
• Three stages: the main stage, Lokvina and Crekvina, with klapa singing and folklore in the afternoon and pop and rock bands at night.
• The samanj: stalls of family farms, wooden crafts, toys and the petešić, a little rooster whistle you blow through its tail.
• Fairground rides stand at Šporova jama, in the sports zone and on Belveder square.
• Museums and galleries open their doors, among them the Kastavština Museum Collection, the Holy Trinity gallery and Kuća belice.

The fair fills the public streets and squares of the old town, and the 2026 programme listed no entry ticket. Wine and food are paid at the stands. In 2025 the CrekVina festival worked with a rented Kvarner Wines glass and wine vouchers sold at the tills.

Getting there from Rijeka and Opatija

Kastav lies about ten kilometres north-west of central Rijeka and about eight kilometres above Opatija. The old town sits on a 365-metre hill just above the Matulji interchange, where the Rijeka bypass meets the A8 motorway from Istria. Autotrolej suburban lines 18 (via Rubeši) and 18B (via Rešetari) connect Rijeka with Kastav. Line 37 climbs from Opatija through Matulji and runs only a few times a day at weekends. In 2026 single tickets bought from the driver cost €2.50 to €4.00 depending on the zones, and a day ticket for all zones cost €5.44.

Kastav closes its centre to cars for the fair. In 2026 the road from Šporova jama to the Belići junction and the streets of the centre were closed from Saturday at 08:00 until Monday at midnight. Drivers from Rijeka and Matulji parked along the road at Rešetari and on the access road to the sports zone, and drivers from Viškovo in the Žegoti business zone. The last stretch is on foot, up steep cobbled lanes. Autotrolej changes its routes for the fair: in 2022 several lines ended at Šporova jama, and in 2025 the buses ran to a changed timetable for the three days. On the 2026 timetable the last regular buses back left Šporova jama at about 22:00, before the late concerts. The changes appear in the Autotrolej notices.

Tips for the fair

• Small euro notes help at the samanj stalls, where items are small and cards are less common.
• After the tastings, the bus, a taxi or a bed nearby gets you home.
• The hill is cooler and windier than the seafront, and the bura can pick up quickly: a warm layer helps at the late concerts.
• Flat shoes with grip suit the steep, cobbled lanes.
• Saturday afternoon, right after the opening, suits unhurried tasting and a chat with the winemakers.
• Young wine is meant for the coming weeks; bottles flying home go in checked baggage.
• Kastav has few beds for a crowd this size. The tourist board lists private holiday houses, the 15 rooms of Kukuriku on Lokvina and the 11 sea-view rooms of Villa Mira. Rijeka and Opatija are about 20 minutes away by car.

The old town between the stalls

A fort already guarded this hill a thousand years before Christ. The medieval town built on its foundations was ringed by walls with nine towers, and much of them still stands. The Kastav statute of 1400 is one of the key medieval legal texts in Croatia, probably written in Glagolitic script and in the Chakavian dialect; the original has not survived. Visitors still enter the old town through the Voltica gate, with the town loggia in front of it. From the top the view reaches over the whole Kvarner.

Lokvina, the square at the heart of the town, is named after the pond that once collected rainwater. In 1666 the people of Kastav drowned the hated captain Morelli in it, and at the end of the 17th century a cistern carved with the year of the revolt was built in memory. By the square stands the chapel of the Holy Trinity, built in the early 15th century, with frescoes dated 1483; it now serves as a gallery. Crekvina is what remains of a huge church the Jesuits began in the 18th century, after the earthquakes of 1750 and 1754 destroyed an older church on the site. It was never finished, because the order was dissolved in 1773. Fifty metres long, it was meant to hold more than 3,000 people and now serves as an open-air stage.

Bela nedeja 2026 in review

The 2026 fair ran from Saturday 3 to Monday 5 October. It opened on Saturday at 14:00 at Crekvina with a toast of young belica. The CrekVina wine festival had 26 exhibitors, from Kastav growers such as Ružić, Mandić, Kapić and Plovanić to the Vrbnik wineries of Krk. The mayor declared Sunday a fair day, so the stalls could trade from 07:00 until 02:00 the next morning. Grooversi and Koktelsi headlined the main stage on Saturday night.

The Sunday programme placed the traditional greeting at noon, with the Spinčići music society, the volunteer firefighters, the sopila players Klaudije Dunato and Saša Popović, the KUD Učka folklore ensemble and pupils of the Milan Brozović primary school. Lokvina held an open lesson in the potresujka, the traditional dance, and Night Express and Daleka obala Jakše i Hrepe were billed for the main stage that night. On Monday Robi & Prco were back on Lokvina, and Mauro Staraj & La Banda were set to close the fair at 22:00. The Kastavština Museum Collection opened with free entry, and the Holy Trinity gallery showed Ervin Dubrović's exhibition on the writer Vladimir Nazor in Kastav.

Kvarner in autumn

Bela nedeja opens the Kvarner autumn. Lovran celebrates its chestnuts at Marunada in October, and on Martinje, 11 November, Croatia toasts the new wine.