A Borgo Designed by the Spirits Built where the Cervo and the Pragnetta streams meet, it’s clear from Rosazza’s fairy-tale architecture that this village is special. Most of the buildings are part of the vision of Federico Rosazza Pistolet (1813-99), the borgo’s most illustrious citizen. He built the town hall, the church, the neo- Gothic castle and a new church in 1876. Esoteric and Masonic symbolism abound in the marble and granite sculptures of his four-tiered monumental cemetery. His style is a skilful mixture of forms – Lombard, Romanesque, Renaissance, Byzantine and Arabic – and Christian and Masonic symbolism. He wanted to attribute to the church, which he conceived and built together with architect Giuseppe Maffei, a brand of universal art. The occult and Masonic references have fostered a legend, which says that “guiding spirits” were employed in the borgo’s design. The buildings, of local stone, have increasingly rare flagstone roof tiles, testimony to the skill of local stonemasons. So too are some of the borgo most interesting details: the capitals of the columns, the Magic Garden’s floral sculptures, the stone bear in the Ortone park and the granite benches. The borgo’s oldest traces can be found in the religious buildings: the two oratories of Carmine and San Defendente, in the Beccara hamlet, date respectively from the 16th and 17th centuries.

Must-see

• Fresh spring water flows from the 27 talking fountains scattered throughout the borgo and its hamlets, Beccara and Casa Vittone. The messages engraved on each fountain are simple and direct, or evocative and poetic.
• The 18th century House-Museum has 17 rooms and documents the inhabitants’ past lifestyle and the culture of Rosazza and Valle Cervo. It also contains
precision instruments of Rosazza’s technical school which had forged enerations of construction technicians.
• The stone bridge with three arches that connects the village to the cemetery and the fountains decorated with roses and fivepointed stars.