Castello dell'acqua

Castello dell’Acqua – The ethnographic trail

In Castello dell’Acqua, a wonderful ethnographic trail begins, lasting approximately three hours, offering the opportunity to discover legends and traditions of Valtellina’s rural economy.

The route starts at the forge in the hamlet of Cavallari, used for the forging of metal tools for over two centuries, and enters a dense woodland through which one reaches an abandoned orchard.

Chestnut trees, lime trees, ash, elder, birch and poplar accompany visitors to a clearing from which the 17th-century church of San Giuseppe can be seen, in the hamlet of Cortivo. The church is known for its depiction of envy: a stucco mask portraying a figure halfway between the grotesque and the macabre, with two scales instead of ears and an open mouth showing its tongue towards Castello Centro, the shaded side of the valley which, according to tradition, is “jealous” of the sun that shines on Cortivo.

The trail continues along a panoramic mule track to the hamlet of Albert, where it is possible to admire the Pila, where chestnuts were once beaten, and the Grat, where they were laid out to dry.

Along the way, visitors also encounter the many mills where cereals were ground, the bread ovens present in every hamlet, and the presses used to produce oil for combustion.

On the return towards Cortivo, two more mills are encountered — one for rye and one for buckwheat. The route then continues for about two hundred metres along a paved road descending into the valley, from which a path cuts across the meadows, leading to the hamlet of Pile.