The closing press conference for the Interreg Italy – Switzerland VA 2014/2020 cross-border cooperation project “MiMonVe – The Mines around Mont Vélan” was held on the afternoon of Saturday, October 14, at the Council Hall of the Municipality of Valpelline. Launched in 2019 with a development complicated by the pandemic, the project features the Unité des Communes Valdôtaines Grand-Combin as the lead, with the Municipality of Ollomont, the Municipality of Valpelline, the Autonomous Region of Valle d’Aosta as partners from the Aosta Valley, and the Municipality of Val de Bagnes, in the Canton of Valais, as the Swiss partner. It aims to improve the livability of mountain territories for the benefit of residents and tourists, starting from the safeguarding and enhancement of the mining historical heritage.
MiMonVe concludes with collective satisfaction, but its partners are transparent about the challenges encountered, primarily the difficulty, on the part of the municipal bodies, to manage the project’s complexity on a daily basis due to the crisis of human and professional resources. For the mayor of Valpelline, Maurizio Lanivi, it is now important to be able to look to the future together: “The goal is to network both as a mining park and with other mining parks, but also to participate in new European calls for projects. The sites will be closed until April 15: the idea is to involve local operators in the organization of periodic guided tours for schools.”
Ollomont, which sees the mining site requalified with the recovery of the Balme and Saint-Jean galleries and now features an adventure park and an archaeometallurgy laboratory aimed at promoting recreational-creative and scientific-educational activities, is also moving towards opening: “The challenge now is to find a management solution to be able to open the sites by May 2024,” highlighted Mayor David Vevey. The presence of the Region alongside the Municipalities was reaffirmed by Davide Sapinet, Councilor for Public Works, Territory, and Environment: “The Region is always by the side of the Municipalities. We will try to work on strengthening the dialogue: besides handing down history to the citizens, this is a moment of relaunch, especially after the pandemic period. It is now necessary to think about management.”
Fundamental in the intentions, both for Ollomont and Valpelline, is the recovery of memory, the custody of the past, and the safeguarding of a time when the economic profile of the municipalities was different from today. “The mines were fundamental in this valley,” observed David Vevey, “in the nineteenth century, the presence of 250 miners led to strong economic and demographic development: in the mid-19th century, Ollomont had 500 inhabitants compared to the current 170. Being able to visit its mine will mean being able to discover the history and retrace the traces of historical figures who passed through it like Innocenzo Manzetti, who was commissioned the water pump to empty the mines’ wells and Emma Strada, the first female engineer graduated in Italy, who worked on the creation of an access tunnel to the mine where today there is the storage warehouse for Frissonière’s fontina cheeses.”
The work on the structures is almost completed, but they will be operational for the official start of the tourist activity, scheduled for May 2024.