Bra Culture

Slow Food

This is the thing. Slow Food was founded in 1986 in Italy, by Carlo Petrini, a native of Bra, and the organisation is headquartered here at the Agenzia complex in Pollenzo. Its stated cause is the right to pleasure and to food that is good, clean and fair — and the three-part formula is the argument: pleasure is not separable from how food was produced or who was paid for it.

The structure is worth knowing because it explains the reach. The movement works through local chapters it calls condotte, and counts over a million activists across 160 countries, with 244 territorial groups in Italy alone. Its four international events are Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Cheese here in Bra, Slow Fish in Genoa and the Slow Wine Fair in Bologna.

The University of Gastronomic Sciences

Co-founded by Slow Food in 2004 with the Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna regions, at Pollenzo inside Bra's boundaries, and the first university of its kind in the world. It studies food systems, sustainability and gastronomy as an interdisciplinary field. Whatever one thinks of the movement, founding a university is a serious institutional commitment and it was made here.

Cheese

Slow Food's biennial international festival of artisan cheesemakers, held in Bra. In 1997 it attracted some 150,000 visitors — five times the town's population — and it remains one of the best opportunities in Europe to buy from small producers who do not export.

The Baroque town

Bra's architecture is north Italian Baroque at its most self-assured. Santa Chiara has an intricate dome by the late-Baroque architect Bernardo Antonio Vittone. Sant'Andrea carries a façade designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini — and not completed until two centuries later, which is a detail worth standing in front of.

Salsiccia di Bra

The town's own food, and a better story than most regional specialities have. It is a veal sausage rather than pork, because it was originally made for the Jewish inhabitants of neighbouring Cherasco, and it is eaten raw. A dish that exists because of someone else's dietary law, in the next town, is precisely the kind of thing Slow Food was founded to record before it disappeared.

Verified against Slow Food Italia, October 2026.

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Sources & verification Covers the sourced claims on this page.

Checked against Slow Food Italia — Slow Food was founded in Italy in 1986 and campaigns for the right to pleasure and to food that is good, clean and fair., Slow Food works through local chapters it calls condotte, with over a million activists across 160 countries and 244 territorial groups in Italy., Slow Food co-founded the Universita di Scienze Gastronomiche at Pollenzo in 2004 with the Piedmont and Emilia-Romagna regions, and is headquartered at the Agenzia complex there., Slow Food's international events are Terra Madre Salone del Gusto in Turin, Cheese in Bra, Slow Fish in Genoa and the Slow Wine Fair in Bologna. (October 2026).
Checked against Wikipedia — Carlo Petrini, a native of Bra, founded the Slow Food movement and the world's first University of Gastronomic Sciences, whose main campus is at Pollenzo within Bra's municipal boundaries., Cheese is a biennial international festival organised by Slow Food in Bra featuring makers of artisanal cheeses from around the world; in 1997 it attracted some 150,000 visitors., Santa Chiara is an intricately domed church by the late-Baroque architect Bernardo Antonio Vittone, and the facade of St Andrew's was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini but not completed until two centuries later., Bra sausage is a veal sausage originally made for the Jewish inhabitants of neighbouring Cherasco, and is usually eaten raw. (October 2026).