Riserva Naturale Speciale della Val Sarmassa

The Val Sarmassa Special Nature Reserve protects wooded valleys, streams, meadows and vineyard edges south of the Tanaro in the Astigiano. Its landscape includes Pliocene fossil-bearing deposits and sites associated with writer Davide Lajolo and local rural history.

Why it matters

The reserve is the quiet, botanical counterpoint to the Langhe's wine landmarks. Established as a special nature reserve by Regione Piemonte in June 1993, it preserves woodland that might otherwise have been built over: in the 1970s developers planned a hotel complex here, and later proposals imagined a landfill, until the writer Davide Lajolo, born in Vinchio in 1912, denounced the schemes and published his appeal "Salviamo la Val Sarmassa" in La Stampa on 5 April 1987, launching a public campaign in which the local wine cooperative played a decisive part. The area belongs to the Asti Pliocene Basin, so its clay and sand outcrops hold fossil shells, marine mammal remains, corals and crabs from when this land lay under a warm sea.

What to notice

The reserve’s habitats range from woodland and valley streams to open vineyard margins. Fossil-bearing clay and sand preserve evidence of the area’s Pliocene marine past. The landscape also includes the casotto di Ulisse, a rural shelter associated with Davide Lajolo, the centuries-old oak called La Ru, the chapel of Santa Petronilla and the locality known as Tre Vescovi. These natural and cultural traces sit within a landscape shaped by long-standing viticulture.

Context and history

The name Valle della Morte is associated in local tradition with a tenth-century battle, though the story is legendary. In the 1970s, development proposals threatened the valley. Davide Lajolo’s 1987 appeal, ‘Salviamo la Val Sarmassa’, helped prompt a public campaign in which the local wine cooperative played an important role. Regione Piemonte established the special nature reserve in June 1993; it is now managed by the Ente di gestione del Parco Paleontologico Astigiano. The Tre Vescovi locality recalls the meeting point of the dioceses of Asti, Acqui and Alessandria.