Highlights and tour details
From Eremo di Busca (hermitage), you go down a path that is firstly a dirt road and then asphalt until you reach the chapel of S.Stefano, go on until you reach Cascina Abello, turn left and firstly follow a dirt road and then a stretch of path going down through woods until you arrive in Busca in piazza Fratelli Mariano.
Points of interest
Monte Pagliano is the wooded peak behind the village of Busca, which is visible from the plain. The Eremo complex has its origins with the thirteenth-century construction of the chapel of the Madonna and the convent of Santa Maria di Belmonte which, in the fifteenth century, passed to the Dominican nuns. In the seventeenth century the hermitage passed to the Camaldolese of San Romualdo and became a devotional centre and attraction for pilgrims. Next to the ancient medieval church the friars erected the new Baroque church decorated with paintings by Dalamano and stuccoes by Beltramelli. In the nineteenth century the complex was purchased by local nobles and enriched with paintings by Francesco Gonin. The complex was then inherited by the Grimaldis and finally passed to an intermediary who donated it to the Parish of Carmagnola around 1950. During the Second World War the abbey church was seriously damaged and, therefore, only some ruins of the sacred environment remain today.
Other information
Source: Unione Montana Valle Varaita
Itinerary code: VVT
Recommended period: All year round
Devotional interest: Yes
Classification: Medium and low mountain provincial
Provinces crossed: Cuneo
Departure, arrival and municipalities crossed
Stages
- Valle Varaita Trekking (175,70 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 1A Saluzzo - Crossroads stage (5,70 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 1 Verzuolo - Isasca (13,60 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 2A S. Bernardo delle Sottole - Colle di Gilba (7,40 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 2 Isasca - Frassino (16,30 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 3 Frassino - Becetto (11,40 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 4 Becetto - Rifugio Bagnour (18,90 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 4A Colletto di Sopra - Colle di Luca (4,40 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 5 Rifugio Bagnour - Chianale (15,60 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 6 Chianale - Borgata Chiesa (19,90 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 6A Borgata Pleyne - Colle di Vers (10,10 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 7 Borgata Chiesa - Meira Garneri (15,60 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 8 Meira Garneri - Borgata Rore (11,60 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 9 Borgata Rore - Melle (15,10 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 10 Melle - Santuario di Valmala (10,10 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 11 Santuario di Valmala - Venasca (9,50 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 12 Venasca - Costigliole Saluzzo (18,10 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 12B Eremo di Busca - Busca (4,30 km)
- Val Varaita Trekking: Stage 12A Rossana - Località Belvedere (10,80 km)