Val Grande National Park

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Val Grande National Park
The Monte Zeda massif in the eastern part of the park
The Monte Zeda massif in the eastern part of the park
Val Grande National Park (Italy)
Paris plan pointer b jms.svg
Coordinates: 46 ° 1 ′ 48 ″  N , 8 ° 27 ′ 0 ″  E
Location: Verbano-Cusio-Ossola , Italy
Next city: Verbania , Domodossola
Founding: December 6, 1991
Address: Duck Parco Nazionale Val Grande
Villa S. Remigio, Verbania
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Abandoned alp

The National Park Val Grande ( Italian Parco nazionale della Val Grande ) is a national park in the northern Italian Alps , near Switzerland . It lies between Lake Maggiore and the Val d'Ossola in the Piedmontese province of Verbano-Cusio-Ossola and is 146 km² in size.

In the western part of the park lies its eponymous core zone, the difficult-to-access Val Grande . The eastern part consists of the more open Val Pogallo and some adjacent areas.

The area of ​​the Pedum rock massif was declared a Riserva naturale integrale ( total reserve ) in 1967 . After several initiatives by local groups and the Environment Minister in the 1980s, the Parco Nazionale della Valgrande was finally created in 1992 .

The only villages in the national park are Cicogna in Val Pogallo and Colloro on the southwestern edge of the park. Most of the national park was never inhabited all year round. However, there was intensive alpine farming, including forestry until the 1950s . After the Second World War , all alpine pastures were abandoned until the 1970s, in Val Grande itself until 1969. After the grazing animals were no longer there, the former alpine pastures gradually turned into wilderness.

Modest tourism only began after the national park was established . Apart from a number of freely accessible stone houses, there is hardly any tourist infrastructure. Apart from the approaches to Cicogna and Colloro there are no developed roads.

geography

Val Grande

The Val Grande is about 25 kilometers long, most of it is uninhabited and is located in the Val Grande National Park (Parco Nazionale della Valgrande) . The main river of the Val Grande is the Torrente San Bernardino, it rises on Monte Togano ( 2301  m slm ) and flows in Intra / Verbania into Lake Maggiore ( 193  m slm ). Seven heavily wooded and original side valleys form the upper part of the Val Grande. In some places there are still remnants of the former alpine economy.

In the center of the upper Val Grande is the Pizzo Mottac ( 1802  m slm ). At its foot lie the Alps In La Piana and Gabbio. The middle area is a wild gorge with no hiking trail. Steep forests and ledges characterize this section. The lowest part of the Val Grande is accessible from Ponte Casletto with a narrow road that leads to Cicogna. The towns of Rovegro, Cossogno, Santino, Unchio and Trobaso are located in it.

The Val Grande is considered the largest wilderness area in the Alpine region .

The vegetation in the valleys consists of chestnut and beech forests . Dense vegetation is sufficient up to 1800  m slm . Above that there is grass heather with alder bushes in protected areas.

The side valleys of the upper Val Grande are called Val Gabbio, Val Serena, Valle Rossa, Val Ragozzale, Val Portaiola, Val Biordo and Vallone di Loc. In the middle Val Grande, the side valleys are called Val Fredda, Val Piana and Val Cauri.

Val Pogallo

Val Pogallo and Val Grande meet at Ponte Casletto. The Val Pogallo is inhabited and better developed. During the heyday of the timber industry, a very well-developed path from Cicogna was built, partly with large stone slabs. This path was later named after the founder of the timber company and versatile industrialist Carlo Sutermeister and is known as Strada Sutermeister . Hikers like to use it as one of the most beautiful easy trails from Cicogna. The former logging village of Pogallo had meanwhile completely fallen into disrepair. Little by little, many of the stone houses were repaired. Members of the Associazzione Amici di Pogallo maintain the village, which can be reached from Cicogna via a 1.5 hour hike. The path is a Sentiero Natura with information boards of the national park and also leads past a bathing area.

history

The Val Grande seems to have been inhabited in Roman times . From the 13th century, the inhabitants of the surrounding valleys began to expand the alpine economy to the Val Grande.

With industrialization , there was a migration from the mountain valleys and alpine farming has already been abandoned in places. In 1969, the last alp in the Val Grande was left to nature.

In the middle and lower Val Grande, the timber industry left its mark in the first half of the 20th century when a branched network of cable cars was built. During this time, residential and farm buildings were built in Pogallo, Orfalecchio, Arca and other places.

During the Second World War , anti-fascist partisans founded the Repubblica dell'Ossola . After Allied troops had already taken Rome, the partisans were driven out by soldiers of Mussolini and the German Wehrmacht and withdrew to the area of ​​the Val Grande. In July 1944 the German SS undertook a rastrellamento with units of the fascist Repubblica Sociale Italiana in order to take action against fighters of the Resistancea in the mountains. Around 500 people were killed in the process. Many of them were victims of brutal fascist executions.

As the contemporary witness Antonietta Chiovini reported, 12 partisans of the Waffen-SS were placed on the barren peak near the Chapel of Marona, who wanted to divert the enemy from their own brigade. To save ammunition, the young men were beaten half to death before being pushed down the slope.

When the mountain settlements were bombarded, many buildings and the cable cars used to remove felled trees were destroyed. The loss of infrastructure contributed to the withdrawal of people from the area around the Val Grande.

Hiking routes

In the upper part there is a well-developed and marked path from Malesco via Alpe Scaredi, In La Piana, Gabbio and Alpe della Colma to Premosello (in these mentioned Alps there are free and very simply furnished huts available). Apart from this route, there are only a few and less easily recognizable marked trails. Most of the old paths have disappeared. There is no mobile phone reception in almost the entire upper Val Grande.

The authorities forbid crossing the gorge along the old path. In the inner area of ​​the national park there are overnight accommodations in a cave near Arca and in a hut in Orfalecchio.

literature

  • Holger Fröhlich: The mountain is our only friend (article about contemporary witness Antonietta Chiovini). In: Greenpeace magazine 01/2017.
  • Bernhard Herold, Tim Shaw: Val Grande National Park. Out and about in the wilderness between Domodossola and Lake Maggiore . Rotpunktverlag, Zurich New edition 2017 ISBN 978-3-85869-735-6 (1st edition 2008).
  • Rolf Platen, Thomas Ruck: Val Grande. Paths to Solitude . Wiedemann Verlag, Münsingen 2009, ISBN 978-3-941453-04-3 .

Web links

Commons : Val Grande National Park  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ^ R. Platen, Die Alpe Serena, DAV Panorama 3/09.