Vigezzo: the Valley of the Painters

The experience

Experience on the Vigezzina Centovalli Railway Train, discovering a hidden gem in the Ossola Alps, in the north-east of Piedmont. Known as the “Valley of the Painters,” the Vigezzo Valley has fascinated intellectuals and artists over the centuries with its natural beauty and cultural richness.

Arrival at the village of Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the places of greatest historical and cultural interest, with its characteristic stone houses and narrow streets.

During the stop you will visit The Chimney Sweep Museum, the House of Perfume, and the Pinacoteca of the School of Fine Arts.

The Chimney Sweep Museum offers you an immersion in the harsh reality of chimney sweeps, a predominant figure in the life of the Vigezzo Valley for centuries and is the only museum in Italy dedicated to this craft. The first chimney sweeps were the Vigezzini, who emigrated to Europe in the mid-1500s. The children, thanks to their slender stature, played a crucial role in the hoods, ensuring precise work with rasps and brushes. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the phenomenon of the “little rusca” involved many families in Vigezzo, who were forced to “rent” at least one child to their owners. Parents subjected their children to this difficult experience in order to reduce the mouths to feed during the winter. The decline of the phenomenon occurred between 1940 and 1950 with the disappearance of fireplaces, replaced by stoves and modern heating systems.

The famous Eau de Cologne was created by a Vigezzo man who emigrated to Germany and its history is retraced inside the Feminis-Farina Perfume House.
Inaugurated in 2018 and dedicated to Susy Giorgis, the House is an engaging multimedia museum that offers visitors the opportunity to immerse themselves in the history of the oldest fragrance in the world: water, commonly known as Cologne water, but conceived by G. Femminis and G. Farina in the early eighteenth century.

The Pinacoteca della Scuola di Belle Arti Rossetti Valentini, inaugurated in 1878 by the renowned painter from Vigezzo, who emigrated and then returned with the aim of teaching a new generation of artists free of charge, represents a journey through local history. From the mid-seventeenth century, the young people of the region could learn the art of drawing in the workshops of the various municipalities of the valley. Numerous painters went abroad to perfect their skills and seek their fortune, then brought home new ideas, techniques and materials from all over Europe. Rossetti’s intent was to raise the prestige of the artistic profession deriving from an academic training and ensure its relevance and economic effectiveness, since being a painter implied carrying out an authentic craft.