Parco Nazionale delle Incisioni Rupestri di Naquane

In the woods of Capo di Ponte, 104 boulders preserve Camunian engravings, including a deer hunt, a running priest, a war chariot and inscriptions in an ancient alphabet. Established in 1955, the park was Italy's first archaeological park.

Why it matters

The Parco Nazionale delle Incisioni Rupestri, established in 1955, was the first archaeological park created in Italy, and in 1979 it became the core of the first Italian inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list. Across its wooded slopes, 104 engraved rocks preserve the best-known images of Valcamonica's carving tradition, in a sequence that runs from schematic Neolithic figures through the symbolic compositions of the Copper and Bronze Ages to the dynamic narrative scenes of the Iron Age. The classic Camunian cycle continued through the Roman arrival, with sparse medieval additions. The engravings document a tradition that unfolded over thousands of years in the chestnut woods of Valcamonica.

What to notice

Roccia 1, the Grande Roccia, holds more than 2,000 engravings from the late Neolithic to the early Iron Age, including an Iron Age deer hunt with hounds and hunters. Roccia 35 depicts a running priest and a village scene; Roccia 23 carries a horse-drawn chariot in dual perspective. Roccia 50 includes praying figures, horsemen and around ten inscriptions in north-Etruscan characters.

Context and history

The park's creation in 1955 formalized a protection idea that was then novel: keeping engraved rocks in their landscape rather than moving them to a museum. The initiative grew from discoveries that began with the Massi di Cemmo in 1909 and developed alongside Capo di Ponte's research institutions, including the state museum MUPRE and the Cividate Roman museum. UNESCO recognition followed in 1979, inscribed as site n. 94, the first Italian World Heritage property. The park remains the reference point of a valley whose engraved locations number more than 180 across 24 municipalities.