The Manzoniana Walk, a timeless event
26 July 2025
The rock crosses of Premana: mysteries engraved in the rock between history, faith and Alpine archaeology
On the north-west slope above Premana, where the woods become sparser and stone reappears among the high-altitude herbs, lies one of the oldest and most fascinating traces of human presence in the Valvarrone mountains: rock crosses. A veritable book of stone, engraved into living rock, where archaic symbols speak the language of time, faith, and collective memory.
To discover them, you must set off along the path that climbs from the village towards the Piancalada alpine pasture, following the hiking route to Premature and delegation. Here, among the rocky outcrops that dot the slopes, is the so-called “Pilgrim of the Cross” – the Sasso delle Croci – the symbolic place par excellence, where rock carvings were first found in the territory of Premana.
It is September 1995 when Antonio Bellati, poet, historian and writer from Premana, brings to the attention of the scholar Oleg Zastrow, an expert in rock archaeology, this enigmatic site. Zastrow immediately recognises The antiquity and importance of engravings, which trigger a series of new searches in the Varrone area. Within a few years, they are identified several other sites, all located between the 1300 and 1800 metres in altitude, strategically distributed across South-facing slopes, exactly where prehistoric man found light, warmth and safety.
But what do these stones tell? The engravings are largely composed of Little cups, small round indentations of varying sizes, sometimes isolated, sometimes arranged in geometric patterns. Next to these, stand out the crosses, rendered using different techniques – incised with chisels, abraded, or even carved in relief – and presented in a thousand stylistic variations, sometimes rudimentary, at other times surprisingly elaborate. Enigmatic symbols are not lacking, perhaps linked to protohistoric cults, passage markers, or simple pastoral markings with ritual significance.
The discovery of these rock crosses has An extraordinary historical and anthropological valueShow that man frequented these heights regularly even in very ancient times, probably since the Bronze Age, and perhaps even earlier. Within them can be read the silent trace of pastoral communities, of archaic beliefs linked to the sun, fertility, the cycle of seasons, and, later, to the Christianisation of sacred places.
The Cross's Slab becomes so a crossroads between archaeology and spirituality, a point where the mountain becomes the guardian of an ancestral cult carved into stone. A small natural altar, suspended between sky and earth, between prehistory and alpine devotion.
Today, the area is accessible to the more curious hikers, but the interpretation of the engravings remains a complex matter. Some of them could date back to over 3,000 years ago, while others appear to date from the Early Middle Ages or even the modern era, when the tradition of crosses on stones was kept alive by shepherds and pilgrims.
The rock crosses of Premana tell us of a very distant past, but one that is still alive in the valley's landscape and culture.. They are silent, yet eloquent symbols: they invite us to slow our pace, to observe with respect, and to feel, among the lichens and cracks in the rock, the deep breath of history.
For those who wish to delve deeper into the subject, a visit to the Premana Ethnographic Museum or a consultation of the works of Oleg Zastrow and Antonio Bellati, among the first to shed light on this precious alpine rock heritage.
Beneath our feet, along ancient paths, still lies a world of signs to decipher: stone does not forget.
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