Birreria Pedavena (Birra Castello)

The Luciani brothers opened the brewery at Pedavena, near Feltre, on 27 March 1897, and by 1920 it was Italy’s second-largest brewer. The family sold it to Heineken and Whitbread in 1974. When Heineken announced its closure in 2004, about 44,000 people signed a petition, and Birra Castello bought the brewery in 2006. Birra Castello began in 1997 with the San Giorgio di Nogaro plant that Heineken had to sell; in 2023 it agreed to sell that plant to Royal Unibrew, and it now brews at Pedavena, with over 450,000 hectolitres in 2024 and a EUR 10 million bottling line for export from 2025.