Discover Olda: Walking Trails and Churches

Olda can be explored through a range of walking and cultural themes. If you are looking for a hotel in Olda for your stay, the trails, natural sites and churches mentioned here can help you decide what to focus on during your trip. The themes range from connections between places and a circular route associated with the landscape to churches with clearly distinct architectural histories and features. This can help you decide whether to focus more on the walking trails described or on historical and artistic details.

Walking Trails and Circular Route

The Sentiero 570C walking trail connects Olda and Costa di Peghera. The Sentiero 570B connects Olda, Ponte dei Senesi and Peghera. The places named distinguish the two routes: the 570C mentions Olda and Costa di Peghera, while the 570B also includes Ponte dei Senesi and Peghera. If you are noting these trails for your stay, keep their routes separate rather than combining the place names into a single route.

Another highlight is the “Vie della transumanza e degli ecosistemi” circular route. It follows the now-disused Strada Bassa, built in 1910 as a convenient shortcut to the Orridi. The route also passes through largely unspoiled areas of very high natural value around the Torrente Enna. It also reaches the Sorgente della Muffolenta, a limestone-depositing spring with high biodiversity. On this circular route, you can encounter both the history of the Strada Bassa and specific natural features. At the route’s starting point in Olda, there is a central parking area below the parish church.

Nature and History Along the Trails

The area along the Via dei Partigiani is particularly rich in wildlife; foxes, roe deer and chamois live there. The Grotta dei Partigiani has a different historical significance: during the war, it served as a refuge for partisans, allowing some of them to escape a massacre. These two themes offer distinct perspectives: the wildlife of an area along the Via dei Partigiani, and the wartime history of the cave.

Churches and Architectural History in Olda

The parish church, “Chiesa dei Santi Pietro e Paolo,” was first built between 1477 and 1497, rebuilt in 1770, and given its present form between 1894 and 1897. These three periods distinguish the original construction, the rebuilding and the creation of its present form. The “Chiesa della Madonna di Lourdes” in Olda was built in 1720 at the instigation of the local parish priest, Don Antonio Locatelli Pasinetti.

The “Chiesa della Beata Vergine di Lourdes” has a single-nave interior. The lunettes of the barrel vault are decorated with frescoes depicting the Madonna, the Apostles at the Last Supper and the Nativity of Mary. Alongside its architectural form, the church therefore has a clearly identifiable collection of images. Together with the different building phases of the parish church, this offers a concrete way to explore sacred architecture in Olda: you can consider the development of a church over time and the subjects depicted in another church as distinct aspects.

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