Trg od knjige — Book Square

Every year from 21 to 28 July since 2003, Trg Herceg Stjepana — the marble square locals call Belavista, in the heart of Herceg Novi's Old Town — becomes Trg od knjige, the Book Square: an open-air international book fair under the summer night sky.

Belavista is one of the loveliest squares on the coast: a polished marble terrace inside the Old Town's stone lanes, ringed by façades and open on one side to the air of the bay below. On July nights it holds the day's warmth long after dark, and the fair's lamplit stalls give it the feel of an outdoor reading room shared by the whole town.

Regional publishers set up their stalls across the square, and each night brings author events — readings, launches and conversations with writers, held in the open with the sea air drifting up from the bay. The 2026 fair, confirmed for 21–28 July, includes an evening with authors of the Belgrade publisher Clio on 24 July. Concerts and drama performances round out the evenings, so literature shares the square with music and theatre.

Mornings belong to the youngest: children's literary programmes turn the square into a daytime storybook before the evening crowds return. The combination of browsing, listening and lingering makes it less a fair than a week-long literary salon in the open air.

That salon quality is the tradition the fair protects. For over two decades it has kept books at the centre of Herceg Novi's peak summer week — an argument, renewed nightly, that a holiday town can gather around an author as happily as around a stage.

Everything is free. The square sits inside the Old Town's stone lanes, a short climb from the waterfront — come at dusk, browse the stalls, and stay for whichever author or concert the night offers. Eight nights, 21 to 28 July, means even a short stay will catch at least one.