Mount Bardellone, its valleys and its ancient routes
that Mount Bardellone
there is not very clear what : a feeling, a
Certainly if you happen on a humid day, with the bark of trees of black
Then all of a sudden, it ends. It comes out of the cloud and returns to the earthly dimension.
also to go on a day of bright sun,
not hard to imagine, then, because the Bardellone has been in prehistory, history, and to this day is a place full of charm and mystery.
The area indicated by the name "Bardellone" - which derives from the Celtic root / Ligurian bar, with the meaning of "fortified place" - is, in fact, very large, as including the entire mountain, the shape of plateau and the valleys formed by the first section of the streams that come from it.
is now common opinion of many scholars that the mountain Bardellone has been the cradle of civilization in respect of the Ligurian territory of the Val di Vara media and a large stretch of coastline between Bonassola and Monterosso.
Its geographic position is crucial because, arranged like an amphitheater, concave towards the sea, is the natural starting point to trace back from the Bay of Levanto towards the hinterland, is a watershed between the coast and inland valleys and allows, thanks to its broad ridge, the convenient connection of paths from the valleys to the main NS road.
For these reasons, from prehistory to the First World War, the Bardellone has seen a man diligent attendance, although no temporal continuity.
The first settlement probably dates to the Bronze Age, and the few artifacts found, it must have been mainly construction funeral, so it is possible to envisage an initial use of the summit as a necropolis or otherwise linked to the death or worship of the dead. The first finding
officially registered, in fact, was in 1921 in the locality Campodonico, a splendid tomb stone box roughly cubic in shape, made of six layers of shale and stone urns containing two bowls with cover, another a small bowl and olla, all-ceramic, as well as a fibula, a spiral and a bronze dagger.
The tomb, however, is not the only one found in the area. Several findings are not approved, in fact, mentioned in the oral memory, especially in the area surrounding the village of Albereto.
Albereto was an important center of ancient man-made, and expanded trade, until his tragic destruction by the Lombard king Rotari, in 643. He, followed by his fierce army, and traveled the entire Liguria, along the old road halfway up the Cinque Terre, plundered and destroyed every village on his way to Genoa, who won in a short time.
Albereto Maybe it was really a budget with prehistoric Necropolis, perhaps connected with the settlement of the summit Castellaro Bardellone. The artifacts found at the top of the mountain, about 650 meters above sea level, are in fact related to an important prehistoric fortification. In Val
Marveia (a name impossible not to immediately associate the Vallée des Merveilles del Colle di Tenda), a a couple of kilometers to the east of the summit of Bardellone, were found rock carvings and oral memory really want this valley great human center of antiquity. The legends, in fact, speak of a settlement with its necropolis in the mountains opposite the village of Casale, beyond the river of the same name, just where is Val Marveia. Counting
that the density of residential areas in prehistoric Ligurian area was not high, there is a good chance that the oral tradition and archaeological findings coincide placing, and then, on top of Bardellone, a large human population installation (Albereto) defensive (Castellaro) and burial (Val Marveia).
This hypothesis is plausible, especially if you consider the topography of the area: the summit of a mountain overlooking the sea and the hinterland, an important route through which it passes (perhaps already commercial), rich in springs, just as pasture for livestock with the presence of karst cavities in large numbers (fixed and / or burial). It would seem an ideal place for an appropriation and the ruins of castellaro Albereto and demonstration of this.
What is still lacking in the practical demonstration is the necropolis. The oral memory speaks and has no reason to lie.
Legend of a hole discovered by lumberjacks and chestnut trees uprooted in Val Marveia, which turned out to be an underground maze filled 'tombs and strange objects. " The story, probably not very old, no special aura of mystery. Seems pretty straightforward and it is easy for us to imagine that these woodcutters, face to face with prehistoric burials, define the frills funeral "strange things". We think of the burial of the Arene Candide (SV): If you had seen the same woodcutters, in a dark basement, anxious and scared, jaws rate, tiny shells pierced, weird decorated vases, polished antlers, blades of chipped stone and bone scattered purple, what would they think? How could they call them? "Strange Things" is not a description very scientific but you get the idea.
Probably, the legend is not so fanciful. Probably, the facts are described more or less as they happened.
Locate the discovery, however, is impossible. Loggers, in fact, they say overcome by fear, obstructed access to the underground again and pledged not to reveal it to anyone.
This is perhaps the small nucleus of the fairy-tale story, with obvious intent to deter the curious who wanted to get on the trail of the necropolis. Rightly known as the Horse, the inhabitants do not like to be so much publicity.
Bardellone the fact is that, many centuries later, in mediaeval times, hosted a defensive castle and a small town: it is Celasco.
Obviously there is a clear discontinuity between the two acquaintances of the site may, however, may be covered whereas the town of Albereto.
The budget may have been prehistoric probably abandoned at the end of the Iron Age, while the first attendance of the castrum Celasco dates back to the eleventh century.
In this gap of over a thousand years, however, human presence on the mountain has always been strong. The village of Albereto fact, there were many families with the social structure of agriculture, who cultivated the fertile fields around the top of Bardellone, flattened using artificial emplaced by the primitive inhabitants of the place.
Lombard Even after the devastation of the town, the few survivors - who later founded Monterosso - continued to go to those places to use land, resulting from human activity on the mountain some continuum. Even today, the fields are cultivated by some townspeople from Monterosso, arose several stone houses and the village of Albereto has gradually repopulated, although one can not speak for the village itself, the absence of a significant urban area. There is not never been a church, apparently.
Sometimes, however, appearances can be deceiving. Tradition will, in fact, that near Albereto at one time there was a large church. This building was replaced in the Christian era, a pagan temple would house treasures and important and noble burials. The "Valley of the Church" today is a bush difficult and impractical for which they have never done adequate research, and yet, somewhere hidden from thorns, the ruins of an ancient temple waiting to be discovered.
Sure, you can not base a search on this oral source, however meager, given the name of the place and frequency of similar shrines in the area, it might seem sensible to try to collect more information. The
Bardellone dominates a large surrounding area of \u200b\u200bmountains with its shrines and is, as already mentioned, the bottleneck of the funnel of the many routes from inland villages, leading to the sea. It is possible, therefore, that the church of which it is told so pompously to Albereto was the result of the usual Christian conversion of a pagan shrine that is credible if the great religious influence on the ancient Celtic Ligurian may have been the central temple ( Perhaps the famous mezu nemunuius which it is assumed) in the area, which is controlled by the religious power of the other smaller local shrines.
For now, the oral memory does not seem to help ourselves and more, however, the archaeological evidence are inaccessible, as the valley that holds. " something " , no one can question that. ' intuition, a ' energy. Perhaps ' air is different. ' water, some low cloud is easily arenerĂ the peaks, creating a striking vision of the magical flavor. If it happens, then, to walk the narrow road that winds along the ridge just during the " stop " of a cloud, suddenly you find yourself immersed in a strange dream about it all becomes black and white and looking down among the dead pine trees, where there should be the sea, c ' is only a milky abyss from which just filters the sunlight. The visibility reduced to twenty feet, and hides the curves of the road, as they continue, it will seem to be immersed in the ethereal substance from the slight smell of ' water. There ' is none. A natural silence. You look around and wonder: " are still in the world of the living? " ' effect is always amazing. Looking at the peaks, the incredibly lush green forest that gives a breath of ideas and purifies the above, the sky is deep space the ' imagination. Looking down, however, overlooking the woods, valleys carved by copious streams, scattered villages and the silvery glow of the sea fortify the eye, which is enchanted. 
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