September has been Šibenik’s fair month since the Middle Ages, when traders gathered for the feast of the city’s patron St Michael on 29 September. The modern fair was created in 2005 by the City of Šibenik with the Šibenik Tourist Board, the Šibenik Craftsmen’s Association and the Šibenik City Guard, a costumed civic company. It recreates the fair days of the era of Juraj Dalmatinac, the 15th-century architect of the Cathedral of St James, and in its heyday drew around 130 exhibitors from across Croatia. After the 2019 edition it was suspended during the pandemic, and an attempt to restage it at St John’s Fortress had limited success; in 2025 it returned to its original waterfront format, and the 17th edition is scheduled for Friday 4 to Sunday 6 September 2026.
The market occupies the green strip of the riva directly below the cathedral, open from 9:00 to 22:00 on Friday and Saturday and until 14:00 on Sunday, with exhibitors in the period dress of their home regions selling traditional crafts and foods. Around it the lanes and squares of the old town fill with re-enactment groups: knights’ combat and demonstrations of historical weapons, cannon fire, period dancing and music, food cooked the old way and a children’s programme. The set piece of recent editions is an evening re-enactment along the waterfront of the naval battle of 1378, fought when Šibenik, then under the Hungarian-Croatian crown, was attacked during the war between Venice and Genoa.
The programme is free; visitors pay only for what they buy at the stalls. The 2025 revival was smaller than the pre-pandemic fairs, with around 30 exhibitors, so expect an intimate event rather than a mass festival; the full 2026 programme had not been published as of August 2026, so check the tourist board’s site for times. Šibenik is about an hour and a half by bus from Split and an hour from Zadar; the old town is car-free and the fair area is a few minutes’ walk from the bus station along the waterfront. The fair combines well with the climb to St Michael’s and Barone fortresses above the town and a boat trip to St Nicholas Fortress, the 16th-century Venetian sea fort at the mouth of the channel.
