Special Nature Reserve of the Sacro Monte di Oropa (Biella) - Piemonte Feel

Nature parks

Special Nature Reserve of the Sacro Monte di Oropa (Biella)

Category: Parks

Biella

This Nature Reserve extends over the Conca di Oropa (Oropa Valley) and comprises the Sacro Monte (Sacred Mountain) and the foot of the nearby mountains: Monte Mucrone, Monte Camino and Monte Rosso. These mountains are characterised, at high altitudes, by vast open grasslands with lavender, shrubs of green alder and rhododendron, which at lower altitudes give way to birch formations that have grown in the abandoned meadows and fields. The area of the Sacro Monte is mostly characterised by beech trees, and smaller numbers of sycamore trees, ash trees, laburnums and European mountain ashes. Oropa was the last of the Sacri Monti (Sacred Mountains) of Piemonte to be declared a world heritage site by UNESCO, and it is devoted to the life of the Madonna, since it stands not far from the most important Marian place of worship: the Santuario della Madonna Nera (Sanctuary of the Black Madonna). The devotional route is organised in seventeen chapels built, over 150 years, from 1617.

Information

Area: 1500 hectares
Elevation: 750 - 1.518 metres above sea level
Established: 2005
Environment: mountainous
E-mail: ufficiogabinetto@rc.comune.biella.it
www.parks.it/riserva.sacro.monte.oropa
Head Office
Via Battistero, 4 - 13900 Biella
Tel. +39.015.3507312 - Fax: +39.015.3507508