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Inside this park, there are several natural environments thanks to the massive presence of water and the considerable altitude range of the territory. The park covers an area of almost 20.000 acres along the stretch of the Po River which runs from Monviso to the border of the Province of Turin. The vegetation is highly variegated.
In Crissolo, the course of the river begins to feature many different tall trees, gradually switching from conifers to broad-leaved specimens, such as birches, beeches, chestnuts, willows, and black alder bushes.

Info: segreteria@parcomonviso.eu – info@parcomonviso.eu

THE VISITOR CENTRES

-Natural Museum of the Po river

Located in the centre of Revello, at the beginning of the Po River Valley, this Museum offers a virtual close encounter with the river environment, focusing on a scientific and at the same time aesthetic approach covering the natural wealth of this very ecosystem. The exhibition area is often used for environmental studies and education activities, including conferences, and workshops; there is also a small library.

Address: Piazza Denina, 5 – 12036 Revello (CN)

– “Alevé” visitor center

Located in Casteldelfino, on Val Varaita, this museum offers a real-size detailed diorama representing Bosco dell’Alevè: a wood made only of Swiss pines which covers 2.038 acres of a Site of Community Interest (included in the “Natura 2000” European network).
Visitors can interact with the diorama and walk along a path, reproduced in full details, which winds among the stone pines, skirting a rocky wall. Among the trees and in the undergrowth, there are typical Alevé animals such as wild boars, hares, and black grouse. The path then leads to the nice reproduction of the nearby Bagnour Lake and the surrounding alpine environment.

Address: Via Roma, 38 (former Municipal Wing) – 12020 Casteldelfino (CN)

-Museum of the Pyrope of Martiniana Po

Pyrope is a very rare crystal, extremely scarce in the world and very little known. Martiniana Po, near the mouth of the Po River Valley, is one of those few places where that crystal can be found.
The Pyrope Museum was thus designed to introduce visitors to this unique and precious mineral resource. The museum is in the city centre, near the Town Hall, and offers three main exhibition halls: the first covers the geological history of the Po River Valley, while the second deals with crystals and their structure, with the help of models of their atomic arrangement. Pyrope crystals, in particular, are thoroughly investigated and introduced to the visitors. Since the museum has a mainly didactic purpose, the last room is equipped for video projections to complete an interesting but very complex explanation about the crystals.

Address: Via Roma, 25 – 12030 Martiniana Po (CN)

-Faule educational center

This facility will soon be open and will be entirely dedicated to environmental teaching, with specific and peculiar lab structures.

– Spazio Escartons information and documentation center
(open only in the summer)

In the year 1343, Umberto II signed the “Grande Charte” which recognized political autonomy to some communities in the Western Alps. The “Escartons” were thus created, modelled on a kind of federal democratic state that survived for about 400 years and was the cradle of the cultural heritage of some local populations in these valleys. “Spazio Escartons” is aimed at rediscovering this cultural heritage and providing detailed information and several activities that take place in the Upper Varaita Valley, in Bellino, Pontechianale and Casteldelfino.

Contacts: Via Roma, 39 – 12020 Casteldelfino (CN)
Tel. +39 0175 95369

Cover image by Renzo Ribetto

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)