The Road of Horses
- Trail Conditions: On foot
- Interest: Flora, Wildlife, Panorama, Hystory
In the complex road system of Pian di Spagna, divided after 1512 between the Duchy of Milan and Grigioni, today, after restoration, the Strada dei Cavalli emerges, dug into the hard rocks of Sasso Corbè, near Verceia, on the eastern shore of the lake of Novate Mezzola.
A route to be enjoyed slowly immersed in nature in search of architectural evidence or the wild animals that populate the slope or unusual flowers that dot the mountain.
The first news about this road dates back to the first decades of the 16th century , when it was laid out and opened. However, it is not excluded that a previous route, path or path could have already existed previously. The ones who promoted the construction of the new road route were the Grisons who a few years earlier, in 1512, had taken over Valtellina and Valchiavenna, to connect the two valleys directly by land. They succeeded in the undertaking despite the difficulties posed by the morphology of the places: impervious cliffs overlooking the lake. The decision to build a new route was also born from the disappearance of a previous walkway, flatter and easier, which ran along the Adda valley floor and which was destroyed by the great flood of the Adda in 1520 , which radically changed the riverbed and flowed into the small Lake Mezzola lapping the slopes of Sasso Corbè, instead of directly into Lake Como, as it had done until then. The flood had profoundly disrupted a large portion of the valley floor of the lower Adda, making the place even more unhealthy. The ancient Roman center of Olonio had been progressively abandoned, until the seat of its parish church was definitively transferred to nearby Sorico. Commercial and military connections, transport of the most precious goods such as Valtellina wine towards the North, these were essentially the reasons that pushed the Grisons to create the new road.
The latter, therefore, allowed them to directly connect Valchiavenna, their gateway to the South, and Valtellina, which was their most important possession.
An easy, short and safe road entirely on Grisons soil was, therefore, the best solution. The road owes its name to the presence on the mule track of long lines of pack animals heading north and loaded with vases of wine, the particular elliptical barrels intended for its transport.
Near the entrance to the Verceia tunnel, there is a hidden tunnel-shelter from the First World War, approximately 500 meters long. Just above is the post where, in 1848, Francesco Dolzino resisted the advance of the Austro-Hungarians.
