The iron way, Morobbia Valley

In this video a section of the "Via del Ferro" in the territory of Carena is covered, a thematic itinerary that retraces the historical paths that connected the Cavargna and Albano (Lombardy, Italy) and Morobbia (Ticino, Switzerland) valleys and between them mining sites and steelmakers. In these places important vestiges of the ancient iron and steel activities are preserved: settlements, charcoal pits, post stations, connecting routes between extraction areas (quarries, mines), processing areas (blast furnaces, forges, water hammers) and marketing of products.

An Italian-French company managed the complex, which employed a few dozen workers until November 1831, when a fire caused extensive damage to the structure causing it to be abandoned. From that moment the buildings, after the removal of what could be recovered and the inevitable looting, gradually collapsed and were buried by the vegetation.