Campi with walls and talking stones: training with teachers and students of the Bussoleno High School

In December 2025, a School-Work Training program began with teachers and students from the state scientific high school “Norberto Rosa” in Bussoleno, as part of the project «Campi a muricci e pietre parlanti» dedicated to enhancing the historical-environmental heritage of Mompantero.

The program «Campi a muricci e pietre parlanti – The construction of a medieval and modern rocky landscape in Mompantero» aims to enhance the environment of the lower slopes of Rocciamelone, altered by human activities since the early Middle Ages. Here, the sloping glacial deposits have been progressively transformed into flat farmland (especially for vineyards), supported by “muricci” in dry stone. This is a common phenomenon in the Alps, but in Mompantero, the terraces and their infrastructures are interspersed with rock art figures and inscriptions carved or painted on the marble schists of the area, genuine “talking stones.” These graphic expressions reflect human activity on the slopes, as well as the historical events that have taken place throughout the Susa Valley: the natural balcony of Rocca del Chiodo was indeed a privileged observation point from Chiomonte to the Sacra di San Michele.

The project, initiated by Il Patrimonio Storico-Ambientale (Turin) in collaboration with CNR - Institute of Geosciences and Georesources, the Municipality of Mompantero, the Management Authority of the Parks of the Cozie Alps, Fondazione CRT, and the Superintendency of Archaeology, Fine Arts, and Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Turin, foresees the creation of pedestrian visit routes that highlight the origins and evolutionary stages of the rocky landscape along the old communication routes, including the natural phases since the end of the ice ages and the artificial phases, medieval and later, evoking the image of when people cultivated vineyards among the “muricci” and made the rocks “speak” by recording the salient aspects – individual, civil, political, religious – of their lives.

In this context, a School-Work Training program with teachers and students from the state scientific high school “Norberto Rosa” in Bussoleno started in December 2025. The aim of the program is to promote youth inclusion in the concepts of enhancing and protecting historical-environmental heritage, through awareness of the work and individual, social and economic growth opportunities inherent in the enhancement of cultural heritage, with the hope that the experience gained on this occasion can influence future choices, when today’s youth will be called to contribute with their own decisions to the now urgent redefinition of the strategic (economic and cultural) objectives of Italian society.