All areasThe moraine hill and the Elvo valley
La Serra and the Bessa
A hill left by a glacier, and at its foot the heaps of stones from the Roman gold mines.
Mounds of pebbles in the Bessa Reserve. · Photo: Laurom · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Chapter 1 of 3
A line of ice
The Serra is the left lateral moraine of the great Aosta Valley glacier, deposited in the Pleistocene on the left side of the Ivrea morainic amphitheatre. It runs for about twenty-one kilometres, from Andrate almost to Cavaglià; on its ridge stands Magnano, with its medieval Ricetto, and the monastery of Bose lies within its territory. Its shape lets you sense a glacier that has long since disappeared.
Chapter 2 of 3
The heaps of the Bessa
At the foot of the Serra, in the Elvo valley, lies the Bessa: a terrace eight kilometres long covered with large heaps of pebbles that nature did not make. During the Roman gold working, the coarsest material was discarded and piled up; the gold-bearing sands were washed with water drawn from the Viona stream. Among the heaps, traces of the channels and works remain. Before the Romans, local peoples lived here, and on the erratic boulders there are still cup marks carved in ancient times.
Chapter 3 of 3
A landscape that is a document
The woods have taken over part of these places, but have not erased the shape of the ancient work: what looks like a natural rise may be a built-up heap. The Bessa nature reserve was established in 1985. At Magnano, the Romanesque church of San Secondo, from the 11th century, stands in a clearing that was once close to the original centre of the village.
The towns
Serra
Dorzano, Magnano, Sala Biellese, Torrazzo, Zimone, Zubiena
Bessa
Borriana, Cerrione, Mongrando, Zubiena
The market
The market in figures
| Where | Minimum–maximum (€/m²) | Minimum–maximum (€/m²) |
|---|---|---|
| Mongrandocentro abitato · OMI B1 | 435–590 | |
| Zubienaextraurbano · OMI R4 | 390–580 | |
| Cerrionecentro storico · OMI B1 | 325–470 | |
| Magnanocentro urbano · OMI B1 | 280–400 | |
| Sala Biellesecentro urbano · OMI B1 | 280–400 |
Sources
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