Featuring Europe’s biggest and most dramatic mountain face, a famous ski resort, an easy-to-reach glacier and one of Europe’s largest goldmines, Macugnaga is a great spot to experience the grandeur of the mighty Alps without travelling all the way into Switzerland. The village is also the oldest Walser settlement in Italy, inhabited by this resilient Germanic speaking community since the XIII century.

​

There are a number of small settlements strung along the valley bottom (which collectively are usually referred to as Macugnaga).

The most attractive, intact hamlet is Dorf, just a stone’s throw from the town’s main square, and famous for its wooden houses constructed in the blockbau style (dovetailed larch beams) and for its ailing lime tree which was purportedly planted when the settlement was founded. The village elders used to hold meetings under the tree to discuss administrative matters.

 

Tischt

​

Incredibly, the ancient Germanic language, Tischt, is still spoken by the village elders. On a recent trip to Macugnaga, we got into conversation with a sprightly trio of Walsers whom we had overheard conversing in their language.

​

One of the group narrowly missed taking part in the famous Italian 1954 expedition which conquered K2 in the Himalayas.

On the subject of the Himalayas, the East Face of Monte Rosa (Europe’s second highest mountain after Mont Blanc) which looms over Macugnaga, is considered the greatest, most dramatic Himalayan face in the entire Alps, with its 2600 metres of vertical drop from the base to the top of the four peaks: Punta Gnifetti (4,554), Punta Zumstein (4,563), Punta Dufour (4,634) and Punta Nordend (4,609), and a width of four kilometres.

​

A cable car takes visitors from Macugnaga up to Alpe Bill and then on to Passo Moro at 2868 metres above sea level.

The view over the East Face of Monte Rosa is magnificent and the Oberto-Maroli mountain hut/restaurant makes a great viewpoint. It is also possible to walk up to the Swiss border just a couple of hundred metres away and gaze down towards Saas Fee.

 

Belvedere glacier

​

One of the most popular destinations when visiting Macugnaga is Belvedere glacier, which until recently descended to the unusually low altitude of 2000 metres. In fact just a few decades ago all sightseers needed to do was take a chairlift up from the valley bottom, walk a couple of hundred metres to a spectacular viewpoint and gaze down on the mighty glacier.

​

Nowadays, the rickety chairlift still makes the run but the view is likely to be an anti-climax due to the fact that the glacier has retreated and the snout and much of the glacier has been covered over by rocks and debris. 

​

It is now impossible to discern where the glacier tongue arrives. Anyway, to get a better feeling for the glacier you need to walk higher, so cross the stone-field to the colossal lateral moraine on the far side and walk up along the top of the crest. Sooner or later you will catch sight of the glacier beneath the stones.

​

On hot summer days, your hike is likely to be punctuated by the ominous echo of ice and stone falls and even the occasional full-blown avalanche.

​

A popular destination is the Zappa Zamboni mountain hut/rifugio around 40 minutes’ walk from the top of the chairlift. You’ll find yourself in a sunny, rock-strewn bowl through which a stream meanders. So beautiful, the scene seems almost to have been deliberately landscaped.

 

Guia Gold Mine

​

Another fascinating option when visiting Macugnaga is the abandoned Guia Gold Mine in Pestarena, founded in 1710 and closed down after the war as gold mining was no longer cost effective. 12 km of tunnels were built and thousands employed in what was once Europe’s major gold mining area.

​

Open from June to September, the mine allows insight into the shafts and tunnels where minors once eked out a very hazardous living. The temperature stays at a steady 9° C and humidity is 97 degrees, so be sure to wrap up well.

​

Close by the mine is a cosyWalser house museum displaying everyday Walser furniture and artefacts and left very much as it was when lived in.

 

Dead City (Città Morte)

​

Also, but less intriguingly, known as Crocette, or Zemarval in Walser, this is an abandoned gold mining village in Val Quarazza. The area is littered with vestiges of its mining past including, unfortunately, large quantities of arsenic which was a by-product of the gold mining process.