Cogne

Introduction

This municipality occupies the upper part of the valley of the same name and has a long history. It is located at a respectable 1534 m above sea level and was for centuries difficult to access, so much so that its first inhabitants are thought to have come from Piedmont, from the Soana Valley separated by hills close to 3000 metres.

Description

Isolation certainly produced some curious results in the political and social spheres: the earliest documents from the 12th century place Cogne under the direct lordship of the bishop of Aosta, with a whole range of peculiarities including the existence of community 'representatives'. Many centuries later, at the beginning of the 19th century, the local doctor, Dr. César Emmanuel Grappein, organised the exploitation of the iron mines in a communal manner, sharing work and profits among all the inhabitants of the village, including women and children. This immediately brought some prosperity, but the advancement of technology soon led to a long crisis that seemed to end at the beginning of the 20th century, with the advent of a few international industrial groups. A tunnel was built to transport the ore directly to the Aosta hill, from where it was transported by cable car down to the steelworks in Aosta. High production costs led to the closure of the mine in 1979. A first attempt at reconverting the facilities took place with the creation of a Mining Museum. Despite the fact that only 15% of its surface area is involved, the municipality of Cogne has become the de facto centre of the Gran Paradiso National Park, the first in Italy, created in 1922 and comprising 560 square kilometres of practically untouched nature, inhabited by thousands of heads of wildlife that can be easily observed by any hiker. Its history is linked to that of its symbol: the ibex. This animal risked extinction due to indiscriminate hunting and only survived in the Gran Paradiso area. The King of Sardinia, in 1821, reserved the right to hunt it, thus preventing the massacre from continuing. Some fifty years later, King Victor Emmanuel II took great advantage of his privilege, organising a vast reserve, complete with roads and gamekeepers; his successors were less interested in this activity and came, with Victor Emmanuel III, to abandon such carnage forever, converting their private reserve into a National Park, owned by the state.

Information

Area: 212.84 sq km
Altitude: 1534m
Maximum elevation: Gran Paradiso (4061m)
 Number of inhabitants: 1439
 Name in dialect:
 Inhabitant name: Cogneins
Patron Saint:St. Peter and Paul (29 June)
Internet site: www.comune.cogne.ao.it
Webcam:
Bordering municipalities: Aymavilles, Brissogne, Champorcher, Charvensod, Fénis, Gressan, Locana, Noasca, Ronco Canavese, Saint-Marcel, Valprato Soana, Valsavarenche