Parco Nazionale della Val Grande

Points of Interest

Wilderness

The word "wilderness" usually reminds of unlimited spaces and wild and uncontaminated places far from the presence of man. However, Val Grande is not only this. Here the traces of the human presence are very evident: mule tracks, summer grazing pastures, terraced soil, and abandoned cable ways witness the intense presence of man during the past centuries. "Wilderness" in Val Grande means an abandoned place with no roads nor permanent and seasonal settlements, where nature is slowly regaining its spaces. In this valley, wilderness means harmony, natural balance, and uncontested silences.

• Wilderness e turismo integrato - Opportunità o conflittualità?

The Mountain Huts

The great work made to build the mountain huts at the end of the last century thanks to the Verbano Section of the Club Alpino Italiano is witnessed only by the presence of the Pian Cavallone mountain hut. As a matter of fact, the other mountain huts (Pian Vadà and Bocchetta di Campo) were destroyed during the last war and they have never been restored. The Pian Cavallone mountain hut was the first one to be built in 1882, a few years after the creation of the Verbano Section of CAI (1874). The CAI supports an intense activity which aims to give value to the local mountains, opening a number of paths and carrying out reforestation projects. Pian Cavallone mountain hut in the Town of Intragna is open during the summer and during the weekends.
In 1897, in the heart of the Val Grande, Bocchetta di Campo mountain hut was built and it was damaged during the last war. The Park Authority has established a project for its recovery, in order to use it as a control station and a shelter for the hikers.

Cadorna Line

The traces of the long trenches and of the military roads can be found along the paths leading to Val Grande National Park and more precisely to Cuzzago and to Monte Proman (Premosello Chiovenda), and much higher on the slope leading from Passo Folungo (Aurano) to Monte Zeda.
Between 1916 and 1918, the years of WWI, the fear of a hypothetical Austrian-German invasion through the neutral Switzerland led the General Luigi Cadorna from Pallanza, Head of Stato Maggiore dell'Esercito, to arrange a defense line along the southern border of the Canton Ticino. Roads, trenches, communication trenches, tunnels, munition deposits, forts, and weapon pits were part of this great defensive structure which fortunately never became a battlefield.

Vogogna Medieval Village

Vogogna is a village which still preserves the traces of its famous past. An old village already mentioned in a parchment of the year 970, but which dates back to a more ancient period. Evidences of this are for instance the "mascherone celtico" of Dresio and the Roman period tombstone, reminding of the creation of the Roman roads of Ossola in 196 A.D. The Rocca, the castle, and the Praetorium Palace witness centuries of magnificence: as a matter of fact, from the first half of the 14th century, Vogogna became the administrative center of the lower Ossola, according to the will of the Visconti family.