Discover Quarna Sotto

Quarna Sotto brings together cultural history and themes from everyday life in the Alps. The main highlights are the Museo Etnografico e dello Strumento Musicale a Fiato, religious artworks and Alpe di Camasca. These different points of interest can help you decide whether to plan a stay focused more on crafts, local history or a historic Alpine pasture landscape.

Instrument Making, Everyday Life and Natural History

The Museo Etnografico e dello Strumento Musicale a Fiato presents the craft of making wind instruments and historic manufacturing methods. The lower floor documents Quarna Sotto’s rural Alpine history through a reconstructed old kitchen, a bedroom and rooms used to store milk. In the natural history section, the museum displays preserved reptiles, birds and mammals, including some endangered species, as well as many minerals and rocks, most of which come from the surrounding area. The exhibits thus range from instrument making and rural everyday life to animals and rocks.

Religious Artworks and Local History

At least 21 outdoor images—including frescoes, simple wall paintings and wall graffiti—are found on the façades of houses and alpine huts in the village and on the mountain pastures; almost all depict religious subjects. According to the municipal description, the lunette beneath the pronaos of the Church of San Nicolao is dated to 1711 and is still in good condition. The Grotta Madonna di Lourdes on Via Rampone was inaugurated in 1929. A stream flows continuously through the spacious grotto; in an illuminated niche stand a statue of the Immaculate Virgin and a kneeling statue of Saint Bernadette.

The Oratorio del Saliente was planned in 1623 by the residents of “Cocarna di Sotto” as a rural oratory for holding religious services and was dedicated to the Glorious Assumption of Mary. It was blessed on 11 January 1627, and permission was granted to celebrate Mass there. Quarna Sotto still has 32 rural chapels; four more survive only in local memory because they collapsed or were demolished.

Alpe di Camasca and Its Traditions

By the 15th century at the latest, the residents of Quarna Sotto were using Alpe di Camasca as pasture for their livestock; it was already a frequently visited place at that time. It lies at an altitude of about 1,200 to 1,300 metres. Extensive communal grazing lands surround the Alpe; today, most of them have become woodland through natural or human influence. The contrast between past grazing use and today’s woodland makes the changing landscape over time tangible.

The Festa di San Rocco is still celebrated on Alpe di Camasca as a tradition held after Ferragosto. It includes a communal meal, a bar, folk games, music and other entertainment. If you would like to plan your stay around the festival, check the date before travelling.

Arriving by Bus

The road from Omegna to Quarna can accommodate buses with no more than 45 seats. If you are planning to travel by bus, take this limit into account when choosing a vehicle.

Discover more destinations: Villadossola, Feriolo Di Baveno, Scareno, Barbè Superiore, Miazzina, Cannobio, Malesco, Bracchio.

Return to the main travel overview: Verbano-Cusio-Ossola.