Bellano
Iron walkway bolted into a river gorge, carved by rushing water, once powering mills and forges.
Location
About this audio guide
The guide to Bellano's Orrido, an iron walkway bolted into the gorge walls above the rushing Pioverna, starts with a stream that ironworkers spent the 1500s and 1600s damming and channeling to smelt ore from the mines of Valsassina. You'll hear how a poet of the era still called the gorge horrendously ugly even as it drove the local economy, and how the 1700s brought a pink-marble staircase built for tourists rather than millworkers. It follows the gorge into the 1870s, when a cotton mill rose beside it to spin on the same harnessed water. Listen for the sound of the water before you look down at it.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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