In July 2012, the discovery of mysterious foundations in the Eteley wood, at 1700 m, sparked the imagination. Had a remote Roman domus re-emerged or a site linked to the mining activity that for millennia regulated the life of Saint-Marcel? Perhaps the truth lies in between. It is not difficult to imagine the poor devils that between the first century. B.C. and the first century. A.D. they stayed here, working metals in one of the highest mines in Europe. A 2,000-year-old smelting site. If the theory were established, the origins of mining would go back to the Roman era and perhaps even further back in time. Éve-verta From Plout, near the sanctuary, starts the dirt road of about 3.5 km (about 435 m in altitude) that leads to the source of the turquoise waters, a natural phenomenon not far from the mining site of Chuc, at an altitude of 1400 m. That intense, metaphysical green, which stains water and stones, looks like a visionary artist's foray into high altitude, but the show is due to a very particular concentration of minerals. An ancient phenomenon that the inhabitants have always known. It was the Marulians themselves who showed the way to travelers of the past who flocked to admire the miracle of the turquoise waters.
There were three mining sites in Saint-Marcel: Chuc, Praborna and Servette, connected by a road only in modern times. Before, they were independent planets with their loads of dust and fatigue. Pyrite, chalcopyrite, millstones were extracted. Of the first two sites we can see little now. Servette (1800 m) instead is a book of industrial archeology. It can be reached in about thirty minutes on foot, starting from the picnic area of Les Druges (1600 m), the only place in the entire Aosta Valley from which you can embrace in a single glance the incomparable panorama of the 4000 highest d Europe: Mont Blanc, Matterhorn and Monte Rosa. Once you arrive, you will visit the caretaker's house, the miners' village, the forges, the cableway for handling minerals, the extraction tunnels, the slag deposits, the eighteenth-century blast furnace. From Servette some continue into the Saint-Marcel valley, up to the 1900 m of Praborna, once seething with manganese deposits. Not to see the mine, there is now nothing left, but to join those looking for glimmers in the landscape. They are the seekers of violan, a mineral with marvelous purple reflections. Others instead go to observe the Éve-verta.
Photos, objects and videos on the discovery of the Eteley excavations. An interactive-multimedia journey into the world of mines with dioramas, photos and scale models distributed in the different thematic areas of the center: history, geology, metallurgy (transformation of minerals), transport, mining techniques, mill, cableway, tunnels, video room , etc. Free entry.
The ham route can be traveled by car or in a couple of hours on foot, along a path through the woods. A path that has different values: landscape, architectural, gastronomic, religious. You can go fast or slow, contemplate or meditate. The ham route rises from the valley floor and winds up to the mines. A sort of path that goes into the soul of the territory, where sacred and profane coexist. Where else can you find a snack bar where the aromas of the prized local raw ham with 5 mountain herbs rise and the spirituality of the Plout Sanctuary is just a few steps away? The snacks are located at different heights and numbered according to the date of birth, where it is possible to taste local specialties and especially the delicious ham. You can combine it with black bread and then wash it all down with wines from Valle d'Aosta, cider based on the local variety of Raventze apple or Bavarian Kühbacher beer which has an affinity with the territory as the producer family, of Walser origin, was one of the owners of the valley. Saint-Marcel. The first snack bar is La Valdôtaine, in Surpian, at 547 m. We then move on to the La Borna snacks, near the castle at 573 m, and then to Le Coffret at 693 m. Continue to climb towards the Enchasaz locality (988 m) to close the circle at Layachè (1506 m), where you will find the Locanda del Diavolo.
At Valdôtaine there is not only the ham but also the mountain distillery with the old copper stills of the 1940s arrived in Saint-Marcel after the terrible flood of Verrès in 1978. Here the wonderful herbs of the territory are worked: with thyme we he makes Vermouth delle Alpi, with dandelion Amaro Dente di Leone and using drops of water from the green spring he prepares Gin Acqueverdi.
An ancient place of Marian devotion transformed into a chapel in the mid-17th century by a carpenter who was miraculously healed from a broken leg.
In this hermitage, in the mountains, Roberta and Ruben produce exquisite forms of goat cheese after milking their 43 alpine chamois goats by hand. The ungulates feed on grasses, flowers and mountain barks and roam free from May to October at an altitude of 1450 m, where the birch trees give way to the conifers. Obviously the quality of the cheese, with its changing flavor according to the season, is proportional to the happiness of the goats.
Fans of rural architecture can explore Enchasaz, Plout and Seissogne, ancient villages that escaped time, with a feature: door and window lintels are made from blocks of broken millstones. These are stones with round and reddish garnets. And in fact children call Plout the country of measles. Going through these tiny hamlets of a few souls, you will come across stone houses, vegetable gardens, mills, old wash houses, ancient barns with slate roofs, witch fireplaces with disturbing apotropaic heads, even a troglodyte shelter frequented until the early 70s by a stone quarrier.
While waiting for the restoration work of the fourteenth-century castle to be completed, you could go in search of its ghosts. It seems that they love to be hooded, and this would not be new for a ghost, and then they start making a hellish noise moving stones, screaming, striking left and right. It is unclear whether they do this because they are bored or to keep intruders at bay. What is certain is that all of a sudden, a portly figure in a seventeenth-century dress who has all the air of being the boss, calls everyone to order by waving his sword. The din ends. And in the Saint-Marcel valley, peace returns.
If you walk the ham route in June, during the Prosciuttiamo weekend, you will binge in joy because you will combine the tastings with peasant dances and traditional music with the background of guitars, accordions, saxophones, even bagpipes. At the same time, several chefs offer their creations live while in the background the noise of ancient machinery rises, mill wheels for example or the old rice pile. To make the visit to the mines more exciting, you can plan it on the summer day when the theatrical plays of the Passepartout company revive the era of mines. You will see quarrymen, miners' wives, foundry workers, and other characters in period costumes. A leap in time of one or two centuries. To enter the ancient faith of the people of the valley, take part in the second week of September in the Camino de Santa Croce, a 23 km night pilgrimage from the Saint-Pantaléon Chapel of Gimillan, in Cogne, to the Sanctuary of Plout. We start at 10pm and after crossing the Saint-Marcel pass we arrive at the destination around 9am. For some years there has also been the day version: La Grande Traversée.
