Trarego Viggiona

Information and places of interest

At 800 m above Lake Maggiore, a few minutes from the Swiss border, there are three villages that will make you fall in love: Trarego, Cheglio and Viggiona. The municipality, unified at the end of the 1920s, is made up of three villages of rural origins immersed in the greenery on the slopes of Monte Carza from which you can enjoy an enviable view from above of Lake Maggiore.
Trarego, Cheglio and Viggiona are located about 20 minutes by car from Cannero Riviera, 35 minutes from Verbania and a few kilometers from the Swiss border.

PLACES OF INTEREST

- BIG BENCH: the first of the Lakes area is located on Monte Carza at an altitude of 1116 m.
The Big Bench is nothing more than a bench, but it has a maxi size. Climbing on a giant bench allows you to return to being a child and admire the panorama of Lake Maggiore from a different perspective.

- WONDERWOOD: 15 minutes from Cannero Riviera, with a splendid view of Lake Maggiore, Wonderwood is the park where the little ones can experience adult adventures and where adults can return to being children for a day. Inside the park, immersed in nature, there are four adventure courses, a large playground, mini-jeeps and a relaxation area at 1,000 m above sea level.

- ORRIDO DEL VISIE’: it is a natural gorge created by the river whose waters, over the centuries, have shaped the rocks into natural potholes and slides.

- IPPOLANDIA AND APE GAIA: it is possible to book rides, both on horseback and in the company of horses and/or donkeys, to escape from the routine and admire the landscapes of the Upper Lake Maggiore among woods and panoramas. The excursions can be customized both by the level of experience of the riders and by the duration and route to be taken.

- TATTILE MUSEUM: unlike the common natural science museums, here you can touch everything!!

- DISTILLERIA VIGGIONA: in addition to producing excellent quality grappa, its bottles go through labels that bring the history of Viggiona and its people to life.

- ART PATH: a path open for several days that traditionally takes place during the Easter period.

- In Viggiona there is the seventeenth-century and baroque PARISH CHURCH dedicated to San Maurizio, with the beautiful churchyard, the detached bell tower and, inside, an important wooden crucifix, a beautiful Madonna del Rosario, the imposing mosaic dedicated to Santa Gianna Beretta Molla inaugurated in 2019 and an interesting Pietà. A Via Crucis, created in the 1960s by students of the Stuttgart Academy of Art, leads to the nearby Camposanto in whose center stands the Romanesque “Chiesa Vecchia”, whose original building, now abandoned, dates back to the 15th century.

- The PARISH CHURCH OF TRAREGO is dedicated to St. Martin and was built in the mid-1600s on a pre-existing oratory already mentioned in 1166. The church houses a marble altar, a precious baptistery in pink Candoglia marble (the same one used to build the Milan Cathedral) and, in side chapels, two wooden statues from the 1700s: a Madonna della Cintura and a Black Madonna of Loreto, both objects of particular devotion. The view of the town and the lake from the churchyard is spectacular.

- In Cheglio an ancient ORATORY OF S. ROCCO, patron saint of plague victims, preserves a precious 16th-century polyptych depicting a Madonna enthroned with child and the saints Rocco, Sebastian and Martin. The oratory of S. Eurosia, in the Passo Piazza area, is the site of a popular popular festival on the first Sunday in August. The current oratory was built on a primitive chapel from 1667 at the beginning of the 19th century.

ACTIVITIES

- NATURE WALKS: in the woods surrounding Trarego, Cheglio and Viggiona you can follow numerous and well-marked paths that allow you to discover an ancient world made up of "ronchi", "monti" and "alpi". The "ronchi" are the terraces south of the villages where, thanks to the mild climate, vineyards were cultivated and livestock grazed. The "monti" are grassy clearings with huts, located above the villages, intended to house livestock during the spring and autumn. The "alpi" or alpine pastures are instead the places in the high mountains where livestock was transferred during the summer season to take advantage of the grass on the moors. Today, although this agro-pastoral world has irremediably disappeared, there remains the opportunity to rediscover that ancient world that was able to blend harmoniously with the mountain environment.