Monte Pietraborga is a mountain in the

Cottian Alps The Cottian Alps (; ; ) are a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps. They form the border between France (Hautes-Alpes and Savoie) and Italy (Piedmont). The Fréjus Road Tunnel and Fréjus Rail Tunnel between Modane and Susa, Ital ...

Metropolitan City of Turin The Metropolitan City of Turin (; Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ''sità metropolitan-a 'd Turin'') is a Metropolitan cities of Italy, metropolitan city in the Piedmont region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Turin. It replaced the prov ...

in Piedmont, north-western Italy. It is located between the

comuni A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the City status in Italy, titl ...

Trana Trana is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the northern Italian region Piedmont, located about west of Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. ...

and Sangano.

Features

The mountain overlooks

and belongs to the South flank of the

Sangone Sāngone ( Samoan: , 'tribe', Fijian: , 'child'), was the name of a turtle from divine origin and featuring in Tongan myths about the Tui Tonga king named Tuitātui in the beginning of the 12th century AD. Part of the history features prominent ...

valley. On its summit three ridges meet: the Eastern one goes down till to a saddle at 658 m then, after regaining some metres of elevation with the Punta del Colletto (685 m), ends up close to the centre of Sangano; the brief North ridge goes down heading to

, and the South ridge connects the Pietraborga with

Monte San Giorgio Monte San Giorgio is a Swiss mountain and UNESCO World Heritage Site near the border between Switzerland and Italy. It is part of the Lugano Prealps, overlooking Lake Lugano in the Swiss Canton of Ticino. Monte San Giorgio is a wooded mountai ...

Geology

The Pietraborga is known by geologists as an example of mountain made of serpentine. North of the mountain a stone quarry operated in the early 20th century.

History

The Pietraborga

summit cross A summit cross is a Christian cross on the summit of a mountain or hill that marks the top. Often there will be a summit register (''Gipfelbuch'') at the cross, either in a container or other weatherproof case. The practice originated in the Ge ...

was built in 1900. Not faraway from the summit, heading towards Colle Damone, stands a group of

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

s interpreted by some people as

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

remains (

dolmen A dolmen, () or portal tomb, is a type of single-chamber Megalith#Tombs, megalithic tomb, usually consisting of two or more upright megaliths supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or "table". Most date from the Late Neolithic period (4000 ...

s and

menhir A menhir (; from Brittonic languages: ''maen'' or ''men'', "stone" and ''hir'' or ''hîr'', "long"), standing stone, orthostat, or lith is a large upright stone, emplaced in the ground by humans, typically dating from the European middle Br ...

s roughly arranged in a circle in the so called ''Sito dei Celti'' – ''Celtics' Site''). The village of Pratovigero, located on the Pietraborga slopes facing Trana, was permanently inhabited till to the 1960s.

Access to the summit

The Pietraborga is mainly a mountain for hikers, and can be reached following a footpath starting from the San Sebastiano chapel in Sangano (''Via delle Prese''). The route follows the South-Eastern slopes passing by the ''Cippo De Vitis'' (460 m), a memorial monument devoted to the Italian

partisan Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Ital ...

Sergio De Vitis, killed by the

nazist Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequen ...

troops in 1944. There are also shorter ways to reach the summit: one starts from the village of Pratovigero (

), easily crossing the Colle Damone (758 m), and another from the Prese di

Piossasco Piossasco is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 20 km southwest of Turin at the foot of the Monte San Giorgio. Piossasco borders the following municipalities: Trana, R ...

, following the South ridge of Pietraborga. A little less easy way, after the ''Cippo De Vitis'', runs on the East ridge of the mountain. Another hiking route is known as ''Direttissima'', and follows a very steep footpath in the wood which directly connects Pratovigero to the summit. Some stone pinnacles close to the summit are an interesting

climbing area Climbing is the activity of using one's hands, feet, or other parts of the body to ascend a steep topographical object that can range from the world's tallest mountains (e.g. the eight thousanders) to small boulders. Climbing is done for locomo ...

, even if the routes are not so long. The summit of the Pietraborga offers a very appreciated view which ranges from the

Monviso Monte Viso or Monviso (; ; or simply ) is the highest mountain of the Cottian Alps, located in Piedmont, Italy, close to the French border. Monte Viso is well known for its pyramid-like shape. Because it is higher than all its neighbouring peak ...

to the

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

plain and hillside, and from the

Sacra di San Michele The Sacra di San Michele, sometimes known as Saint Michael's Abbey, is a religious complex on Mount Pirchiriano, situated on the south side of the Val di Susa in the territory of the municipality of Sant'Ambrogio di Torino, in the Metropolitan C ...

to the mountains close to

Pinerolo Pinerolo (; ; ; ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, northwestern Italy, southwest of Turin on the river Chisone. The Lemina torrent has its source at the boundary between Pinerolo and San Pietro Val di Lemi ...

. Even if not located at a high altitude Monte Pietraborga has its own

summit register A summit book or summit register is a record of visitors to the summit of a mountain. It is usually enclosed in a weatherproof, animal-proof metal casing. Some books are maintained in an informal manner by an individual or small group, while oth ...

Maps

* ''6 - Pinerolese Val Sangone'', 1:25.000 scale, publisher: Fraternali, Ciriè * ''17 - Torino Pinerolo e Bassa Val di Susa'', 1:50.000 scale, publisher: IGC –

Istituto Geografico Centrale The Istituto Geografico Centrale (IGC, in English ‘’Central Geographic Institute’’) is a privately owned Italian company based in Turin (Piedmont), known for its guide books and hiking maps mainly concerning the Western Alps and their cont ...

, Torino

References

{{clear Pietraborga Pietraborga Pietraborga