Discovering Piedicavallo

Piedicavallo, the centre of the mountain community of Bürsch, which means “home hearth” in the local idiom of Walser origin, is the last village in the Cervo valley. It is well known for the roofs of its houses, made of “lose”, the local stone, and for its typical rural buildings. A must-see is the House of Stones, in Via Roma, not far from the Waldensian Church.

In addition to an enjoyable walk along the main street, it also offers beautiful and characteristic paths or stairways, such as the town hall stairway which leads to the town centre, where splendid “volts” (stone arches) can be admired together with stone benches for a “possa” (a little rest), beautiful fountains and washhouses, also in stone, which adorn the town. Remarkable are the small buildings made of local stone that served as shelters for small farm animals, often goats or sheep. These are built close to the town’s numerous typical rural buildings.

Well worth seeing is the Town Hall. Until the early-20th century, Piedicavallo’s Town Hall looked very different to how it looks today. The two-storey building, located halfway up the hillside, had no basement floors: it was characterised by a single room per floor. The old building had structures with walls about one-metre thick, an inappropriate staircase and very narrow windows and doors that were small compared to the size of the rooms.

In the late 1920s, the original building was demolished to make way for a new one. Next to the Town Hall stands a historic building in local stone. It houses the Società Operaia (Workers’ Society), the headquarters of the Alpini (Alpine Troops) and the Civic Library. You are now invited to continue your journey of discovery of the attractions of the town!

The entrance portals to the old dwellings often show their year of construction. In the flower and vegetable gardens, the tradition of alternating vegetables with various types of flowers and shrubs, a typical Alpine custom, has been kept alive. This is a fascinating route which alternates between rural and noble buildings, adorned with typical wooden attics and stone and wooden balconies.

Piedicavallo also boasts beautiful bridges such as the old wooden and iron bridge over the Mologna torrent or the beautiful Coda bridge near the ‘le Ravere’ park, a masterpiece of rural architecture with two arches of different diameters and resting in the middle on a large boulder of the Cervo torrent. In 2020, a flood hit the town, causing four of these bridges to collapse, including the ancient masonry bridge, which was later rebuilt.

Nearby is the ancient Ghiacciaia (Icebox), in local idiom “la giasera”. Not far from where the path to the Rivetti Mountain lodge starts, in the Piazza dal Cravi, “Goat Square”, is the place where, in ancient times, the goats and sheep of the inhabitants were herded together. They were then entrusted to the boys for grazing in the upland areas.

Now continue further along the town to discover many other fascinating sights and places which recount Piedicavallo’s history and beauty, maintained over time. Follow one of the many paths leading to mountain lodges and discover the fascinating beauty of the small villages further upstream, not far from the town centre. The pace of life in these places is that of the people of these valleys who followed the alternation of the seasons in the natural mountain environment that surrounded them.

We now suggest a visit to the hamlet of Montesinaro to discover other charming features of the area. Montesinaro can be reached via the main road or by taking a nice stroll through the woods on the path that starts next to the small church near the Piedicavallo cemetery.