Aree Protette Alpi Cozie

Vintage postcard. Mines of Beth

One hundred and twenty-one years after the Tragedy of Beth, on Saturday, April 19 at 11:00 AM at the Piazzetta Victims of the Beth Avalanche in the Plan di Pragelato district, a ceremony will be held to commemorate the victims of the avalanche.

The industrial history of the Beth mines, located in Val Troncea at over 2700 meters above sea level, begins in 1863 with the concession acquired by Pietro Giani, a renowned entrepreneur from Turin. A troubled story from an economic point of view, but also an opportunity to experiment with new extraction techniques, which tragically concludes with the great avalanche of 1904.

On Tuesday, April 19, 1904, the workers of the Beth mines "were on the mountain at an altitude of 2700 m, certainly impressed by the continuous falling of snow, the noises, and the imminent danger they were in, decided to descend." According to the testimony of teacher Guiot: "The danger was foreseen and some of the survivors claimed that the locals, who knew better than outsiders the treachery of the snow, suggested taking refuge in the nearby galleries carrying tools, from where they would come out once the avalanche had passed. They were not heard." Surveyor Maurizio Basile, the site manager, managed to get the miners to divide into teams. This is how they began their descent.

Suddenly, between 12:00 and 12:30, the catastrophe: "A thunderous crash, very loud, was heard and before the workers could recover and think of defense, they were swept away like twigs in the valley by a huge mass of snow, which in their expressive language the survivors said looked like a mountain. One by one the teams were overwhelmed into the abyss."

On Wednesday, April 20, the first rescuers arrived at the disaster site: locals, artillery companies from the nearby Fort of Fenestrelle, Forest Rangers, and Carabinieri. Thus, about thirty miners were saved.

On April 25, the first 40 bodies were buried in a large mass grave in the small cemetery of Laval, but before it could be closed again, they had to wait until June 28, when under the snow that had invaded the Gourée gully, the decomposed body of the last miner was found. In total, 81 deaths were recorded, of which 74 were buried in the cemetery of Laval.

The youngest among the victims was from Salza, in the val Germanasca: she was only 16 years old.

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19 aprile 2025 a Pragelato - Commemorazione valanga del Beth

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Commemoration of the Beth tragedy

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