Valle dei Mòcheni

Slow colonisation

Welcome to Valle dei Mòcheni, or Bersntol in Mòcheno, where the River Fersina meanders through woods and mountains. Among the small hamlets and scattered farmsteads on these steep slopes, time slows down, and every stone, every house tells a story handed down through the centuries without ever losing its voice.

Farmer-settlers: the pioneers of the maso

This journey began in the 13th century, when families from Bavaria began to settle in these mountains. Neither flight nor war, this was gradual, planned colonisation, caused, like all emigrations, by hunger: the local gentry invited settlers to populate uninhabited lands, with the promise of land for crops, pasture, woodland. The bond with the mountains was total: each family received a maso or farmstead comprising a farmhouse, stable, barn, land and woodland and, one generation after the next, they looked after it.

These settlers, called "roncadori" (from the verb roncare, to till), transformed forests and pastures into arable land, bringing with them mountain-farming tools, knowledge and techniques.

The main living unit was the maso, an Alpine complex consisting of house, stable, barn and surrounding land, often fenced in. Each farm was run independently and handed down from one generation to the next. This model, widespread in German-speaking Alpine communities, created scattered settlements instead of the traditional Italian villages, imprinting the valley with its distinctive scenery and culture.

Mountain agriculture—cereals, potatoes, animal husbandry—was accompanied by forest management, hay harvesting and craft activities. Geographical isolation favoured the preservation of language and traditions, protecting the community from rapid external change.

The miners: the mountain’s deep essence

Beginning in the 14th century, and peaking between the 15th and 16th centuries, the valley welcomed a second wave: the miners, known as 'canòpi' (from the German Knappen or skilled miner), specialised in the extraction of copper, zinc, lead, and silver. These men came from Germanic regions with mining experience and became part of a complex economy that included mining, the transport of timber for the smelting furnaces and building infrastructure.

The mines in Valle dei Mòcheni, with formal concessions as early as 1330, changed the landscape and social life: while the settlers worked the land on the surface, the miners dug tunnels, creating a parallel underground world.

Although often 'apart' from the farming communities, the canòpi left a lasting imprint. When mining activity waned due to the exhaustion of deposits or the costs of extraction, traces remained in tunnels, trails, and local museums, such as the Mine of Erdemolo.

Earth and rock in equilibrium

In this way, Valle dei Mòcheni saw agriculture and mining progress side by side for centuries. The farmer-settlers built their everyday lives on the wooded slopes, and the miners added depth, the echo of the tunnels and the sound of pickaxes on the rock. This dual nature—the surface and the abyss—has shaped the community, moulded its language and preserved the memory of the valley.

It is this combination of work, culture, and bond with the mountains that makes Valle dei Mòcheni such a remote place, capable, however, of narrating an entire civilisation.

The Valley that remains

Those who visit the valley take home an indelible image.
This is a place where the past is alive, not a weight; where the language, the forests, and the mines all seem to whisper: here you remain and really live. A valley that has never moved, yet has continued to walk.
A language that has not sought to impose itself, but simply to remain.

Perhaps this is the real 'anomaly' of Valle dei Mòcheni: a small corner of the world that teaches you to slow down, listen, and feel part of a bigger story.

The story of the Mòcheni is not a mountain legend: it is proof that even such a small place can harbour such a great civilisation.