No other religious or cultural community has woven such a profound bond with its territory, particularly with the mountains, as the Waldensian community.
No other religious or cultural community has woven such a profound bond with its territory, particularly with the mountains, as the Waldensian community. There are bike and foot paths that will lead you to places of historic moments or symbolic importance in the history of the community. We would like to suggest 3 itineraries:
1. Ring of Waldensian historic sites – Val d’Angrogna. Travel time: 1 hour, excluding stops at the places of interest.
You can start the ring from the locality of San Lorenzo, the chief settlement in the Municipality of Angrogna. Along the route, you will encounter some of the symbolic places of Waldensian history. More information about the route and the possibility of a guided tour can be requested from the Il Barba office (il.barba@fondazionevaldese.org)
2. Valley of the Invincibles – Villar Pellice. Travel time: 3 hours and 30 minutes.
From the Bessè settlement, the path follows an easy mule track to reach the alpine pastures and the chalets of Barma D’Aut. The Vallone [big valley] is narrow and hard to enter. For this reason it had provided the Waldensians with safe shelter during the persecutions of 1685.
3. Punta Castlüss and Bars ‘d la Tajola -Torre Pellice. Travel time: 4 hours and 30 minutes.
From the road that leads to the Coppieri temple, continue on to the Bonnet settlement. Before reaching the houses, take the path marked Castlüss, which will become a forest track and then again, a path. At a fork, you can climb up to the Castlüss point or proceed directly to Bars ‘d la Tajola, a cleft in the rock that leads to an exposed ledge, one of the most daring hiding places of the Waldensians during the persecutions.
There are a great variety of other possible excursions and trekking routes in mid and high mountain terrain. You can contact the Alta Val Pellice or Val d’Angrogna Alpine Refuges of CAI (the Italian Alpine Club) for more information about discovering the mountains around Torre Pellice
There are also a number of alpine and naturalistic guides who operate on the local territory. You can contact them to organize excursions of one or more days. Popolo Migratore is just one of the local associations you might wish to contact (www.ilpopolomigratore.it)
The Val Pellice also offers many snowshoe and ski itineraries, where you will discover majestic panoramas and the silent spaces where nature is still the protagonist.