Parco delle Incisioni Rupestri di Grosio-Grosotto (Rupe Magna)

On a glacier-polished slab above the Adda, more than 5,000 engravings span from the late Neolithic to the Iron Age. Rupe Magna anchors an archaeological park that also includes two medieval castles, rock-cut tombs and an antiquarium.

Why it matters

At 84 metres long and 35 metres wide, Rupe Magna is among the largest engraved rocks in the Alps. More than 5,000 figures cover its surface, including human figures, armed warriors, animals and cup-marks. The wider site also includes an early medieval castle, a Visconti fortress and an antiquarium.

What to notice

The oldest engravings date to the late Neolithic, followed by Bronze Age and Iron Age figures. Motifs include oranti, human figures with raised arms, warriors carrying shields and spears, and numerous cup-marks called coppelle, whose meaning remains uncertain. Most figures were made by martellina, pecking the stone with a tool; the graffito technique was not used on Rupe Magna.

The Castello Vecchio di San Faustino, dated to the tenth or eleventh centuries and recorded as Castrum Grosi, preserves a Romanesque bell tower. A chapel contains two medieval tombs cut into the rock; excavations suggest an earlier place of worship, possibly a seventh- or eighth-century oratory. Built for the Visconti between 1350 and 1375, the Castello Nuovo has a double curtain wall and an internal donjon. Excavations in its southwest area revealed Bronze and Iron Age settlement remains, now represented in the park's antiquarium.

Context and history

Davide Pace discovered Rupe Magna in 1966. In 1970 he identified more than fifty engraved rock surfaces on nearby Dosso Giroldo, including the Roccia degli Armigeri, with figures carrying shields and lances. Mapping and documentation of Rupe Magna followed between 1991 and 1995. The castles trace the valley's political weather: the 1376 Visconti incursion against Bormio, the Grisons order of 1526 to dismantle every Valtellinese fortification, and the refortification during the War of Valtellina of 1620 to 1639. Dry-stone terraces for vines wrap the castle hill, probably built after 1200, adding a working agricultural landscape to the archaeological one.