Museums

Luigi Guanella was born in Fraciscio di Campodolcino on 19 December 1842 to Lorenzo Guanella and Maria Bianchi. During his First Communion, on 8 April 1852 in Gualdera, he experienced a spiritual event that deeply marked his life: an apparition of the Virgin Mary, who foretold a future dedicated to charity. He was ordained a […]

Founded in 1867, the mill stands in the artisan district of Bottonera in Chiavenna. Spread across three floors and powered by a complex system of pulleys, belts and millstones, it operated continuously day and night. The work was overseen by the head miller, supported by workers responsible for monitoring the machinery and filling sacks with […]

Built between the 17th and the early 18th century, the house takes its name from one of its last owners. Today, owned by the Comunità Montana della Valchiavenna, Cà Bardassa hosts the local branch of the ethnographic museum, offering a vivid testimony to mountain life and traditional rural dwellings. The large, pitched roof covered with […]

The Treasure Museum is housed within the evocative Collegiate Church of San Lorenzo, a complex whose origins probably date back to the 5th century AD. The portico, built between the 17th and 18th centuries to enclose the cemetery and host religious processions, surrounds the area with understated elegance, while the 16th-century bell tower watches from […]

The building, now home to the municipal library, once housed the village dairy. Here, among bookshelves and reading spaces, two rooms display the traditional equipment used to transform fresh milk into butter, cheese and dairy products, allowing visitors to discover a world that once stood at the heart of local daily life. The museum is […]

The Museum of the Via Spluga and Val San Giacomo is housed in a historic 16th-century building in the hamlet of Corti, Campodolcino. Its walls tell the story of the valley and the essential role played by the Via Spluga as a vital connection between the Mediterranean world and the lands north of the Alps. […]

The two hills known as “Paradiso” and “Castellaccio”, separated by the deep Caurga gorge and connected by a suspended footbridge, offer a route through trails, glacier-shaped rocks, and spectacular viewpoints. Since 1955, the park has been part of the Museum of Valchiavenna and represents a remarkable combination of natural and archaeological heritage. Giant potholes, erosion […]

Here, the images, tools and voices of the picapréda—the stonecutters who shaped the destiny of the village—come back to life. For generations, men and entire families quarried and worked Sanfedelino granite, named after the first quarry, that opened beside the small shrine dedicated to Saint Fidelis, a martyr of 298 AD. From this compact grey […]

The Piuro Excavation Museum, located within the sacristies of the Church of Sant’Abbondio, preserves the remains of a thriving community destroyed on 4 September 1618 by the landslide from Mount Conto. One thousand lives were lost as houses, churches and palaces were buried beneath three million cubic metres of rock and mud. The disaster echoed […]

Established in October 2008 by the Samolaco Library Cultural Association, the museum extends across four raised floors and a basement. Originally conceived as a photographic museum, it preserves illustrated panels dedicated to the history of the village, local traditions, work and life in the mountain pastures, with captions translated into several widely spoken languages to […]

The Museum Pass (Biglietto Unico Museale – B.U.M.) is a carnet that allows visitors to explore 12 museums plus the Acquafraggia Waterfalls Natural Monument for a special price of 10 euros. It’s a great opportunity to discover some of the most significant sites in Valchiavenna, including museums, archaeological sites, historic buildings, and natural landscapes of […]

Founded in 1982 by the Associazione Amici della Val Codera ONLUS and officially recognised by the Lombardy Region, the Val Codera Historical, Ethnographic and Natural History Museum presents the valley as an Eco museum, with exhibits spread across the villages of Codera and San Giorgio, both reachable only on foot. Here, every visit becomes a […]

The firefighters of the Mese Fire Station, heirs to the tradition of the Chiavenna Fire Brigade founded in 1868 as the Municipal Fire Brigade, have proudly preserved the evidence of this long history. Within the station premises, the Historic Gallery of the Valchiavenna Municipal Fire Brigade was created and completed in October 2002. Each exhibit […]

Walking through the 200-metre main tunnel, visitors enter an atmosphere suspended in time. The echo of footsteps recalls those of the soldiers once responsible for maintaining the gallery. It is easy to imagine the vast quantities of explosives stored in the flooded shafts, ready to sever road and railway connections if necessary. The underground labyrinth […]