Photo: Wikimedia Commons (see source page)
Abandoned village
Savogno
Savogno, at 932 metres in Valchiavenna, was abandoned in 1968: no road has ever reached it. You get there by climbing 2,886 stone steps through the woods, past the Acquafraggia waterfalls; in summer a few families come back to open their houses.
Visiting
Before you go
- Getting there
- Start from Sarlone, at Borgonuovo di Piuro (Sondrio), where you leave the car at the foot of the Acquafraggia waterfalls.
- The visit
- A demanding climb, with stops at the Stalle dei Ronchi (590 m) and the chapel overlooking old Piuro: allow half a day there and back.
- When to go
- From June to September, when there is life in the village and the hut is open.
- Good to know
- Along the way there is a fountain from 1869 and a press from 1706. You will need hiking shoes.
Practical information gathered from official and local sources on 9 October 2026. Opening times and conditions change: always check before you go.
Plan your visit
Where to stay nearby
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History
Savogno (Savógn in local dialect) is a settlement in the comune of Piuro, on the right side of the Val Bregaglia, in Lombardy.
The village is unusual because it can only be reached on foot, up a steep mule track of 2,886 steps.
Of medieval origin, it became a compulsory stop for anyone travelling to Chur, capital of the Three Leagues (the Grisons), in Switzerland.
While he was parish priest here (1867-1875), Saint Luigi Guanella had a roof built over the public washhouse, enlarged the original cemetery, refitted the rectory as a school and restored the 15th-century church of San Bernardino.
In 1961 a local primary school was built. The village was finally abandoned from 1968, as the area emptied in favour of villages further down the valley and easier to reach. In summer, however, some residents of the comune of Chiavenna live there, and a bar-mountain hut with rooms opens in the same season.
Savogno has had evening and night-time lighting since 2008.
Reached by the longest stepped mule track in the province of Sondrio, the village still keeps fine examples of rural vernacular architecture, with 15th-century buildings, stone walls and wooden loggias.
Of particular interest is the old parish church of Saints Bernardino of Siena and Anthony the Abbot. Consecrated in 1465, it has fine frescoes from the period and a Renaissance-style bell tower, built about twenty years after the church; today it is one of the few in the Val Bregaglia whose architecture has stayed unchanged over the centuries.
Text: Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0 · translated from Italian
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