Location: |
Strada della Grotta, 12089 Villanova Mondovì CN.
In Dossi, west of Villanova Mondovì, 16 ESE of Cuneo. Motorway A6 Torino-Savona, exit Mondovì, follow signs to Villanova Mondovì, at town turn right. Signposted. (44.3402342, 7.7432310) |
Open: |
NOV to MAR Sun, Hol 15, 16. APR to JUN Sun, Hol 15, 16, 17. JUL Sun, Hol 10, 11, 15, 16, 17. AUG daily 10, 11, 15, 16, 17. SEP Sun, Hol 10, 11, 15, 16, 17. OCT Sun, Hol 15, 16, 17. 25-DEC to 06-JAN daily 15, 16, 17. Reservation mandatory. [2024] |
Fee: |
Adults EUR 8, Children (4-12) EUR 5, Children (0-3) free. [2024] |
Classification: |
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Light: |
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Dimension: | L=910 m, VR=21 m, A=626 m asl. |
Guided tours: | D=60 min. |
Photography: | |
Accessibility: | no |
Bibliography: | |
Address: |
Grotta dei Dossi, Località Dossi, 12089 Villanova Mondovì (CN), Tel: +39-339-7966644, Tel: +39-339-8526515.
E-mail: |
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info. |
13-MAR-1797 | discovered by a hunter, name unknown. |
1892 | artificial entrance tunnel built, trails and electric light. |
15-AUG-1893 | opened to the public. |
1917 | installation more or less ruined, cave closed. |
1966 | reconstruction of the show cave, reopened. |
Grotta dei Dossi (Cave of Dossi) is a show cave with a long history. It was discovered in 1797 and named after the nearby hamlet of Dossi, which is called I Dòs in Occitan. Sometimes cave name Grotta superiore dei Dossi (Dossi Higher Cave, Upper Dossi Cave) is used. This is a reference to the fact that the cave has several levels, and the show cave is in the upper level of the cave system.
Many details about the discovery are known, including the exact date, but not the name of the discoverer. The cave was discovered on 13-MAR-1797 by a hunter who was following the tracks of a hare in the snow. The details we know today are from a report written by Abbot Pietro Nallino, a scholar of local history and geography. He wrote down the story in all details a few days later, on 16-MAR-1797, but omitted the names of the hunter and the boy. The following version is the best one we found, for some reason the original was never digitized.
On 13 March 1797, a hunter followed the footprints of a fox on the snow cover, in a place not far from the source of the Branzola stream.
He managed to spot it as it flattened out and disappeared into a narrow burrow near a quarry where a particular type of stone suitable for preparing lime was being extracted.
He cautiously approached the hole, fired a couple of shots and, sure that he had wounded it, had a boy enter the narrow burrow to drag it out.
After crawling for a ‘trebuchet and a half’, the young man found himself in a large cavern in serious danger of falling into the void.
He then shrieked with fright, so much so that the hunter had to break into the narrow passage to bring help to the unwilling ‘explorer’.
They both came out of the cave and ran to the village to give the news.
In no time at all, the ‘news’ made the rounds of the districts and spread to the hamlets, so much so that all the local youth, with hoes and pickaxes, gathered in the indicated area to widen the opening and discover the mystery concealed by the rock.
Abbot Pietro Nallino, 16-MAR-1797.
According to oral tradition, it was the hunter’s dog that entered the burrow in pursuit of the fox and suddenly found itself in a situation with no way out. His master’s calls were answered only by distant barks. Intrigued and worried, the hunter ran around to call for help. That day, more than 300 people entered to explore this underground universe with incredible wonders.
It was developed as a show cave in 1892, almost a century later. This development started in 1880, when Prof. Delfino Orsi first visited the cave and wrote an article in the newspaper “Villanova”. In 1884, he applied for the concession to open a show cave but failed. In 1892 another attempt together with Giulio Fenoglio and Francesco Garelli was successful. They founded the Società della Grotta dei Dossi and sold shares at 10 Lira each. They started the development work on 04-OCT-1892, and built an artificial entrance tunnel. 604 cubic meters of rock were removed with 142 kg of dynamite. And it was the first cave with electric light in Italy. The electricity was produced by a generator which was powered by an “Otto” petrol engine. Inside the cave, 30 Edison lamps were installed.
Journalists from the major national and foreign newspapers came to the inauguration on 15-AUG-1893 and wrote enthusiastic articles. The cave became quite popular, at that time the people had no electricity at home, electrification started years later, and so the cave was visited to see this light. Carriage trips were organized from Mondovì with guided tours in the cave, lunch, and an afternoon visit to the nearby sanctuary of Santa Lucia. Even the price has been handed down: the day trip cost 9 Lira at the time. But despite being noted for its speleothems, which were quite bright and colourful, when the novelty of electric light vanished, the visitor numbers to the cave dropped. The cave was not profitable any more, the installations were decaying, and World War I finally caused its closure. After the war, there was no interest in reopening the cave.
The cave was closed for half a century, and unfortunately it was not well protected, so fragile speleothems were removed, stolen or destroyed. This was not new, in the hundred years between the discovery and the opening of the show cave, the rooms closest to the opening were systematically plundered by groups of adventurers who removed stalactites and stalagmites to sell them on the Mondovì market. When it was reopened in the 1960s, the old paths and the light were no longer usable, and the development into a show cave had to start from scratch. Since then, the cave was continually open to the public. It is open only on Sundays, which makes it a cave with rather low visitor numbers, the reason is not the cave itself, but the fact that it is located off the beaten track. And despite the damages of the speleothems, there are still notable stalactites, stalagmites and rimstone pools. The cave is quite famous for its diverse and fragile cave life.
The cave is noted for being the most colorful cave in Italy. That’s a pretty funny superlative, as it actually does not exist. Colors cannot be counted because they form a spectrum, which is continuous. In other words, between any two colours not matter how similar, there is enough space inbetween for another colour. But regardless of the abstruse wording, the stalactites actually have very beautiful colors. And there are extraordinary speleothems like cave coral, bulbous stalactites and more. The cave coral is called pisoliti or Confetti dei Dossi. The pastry chef Baravalle from Mondovì was inspired by the cave coral to produce chocolate of the same form, which he sold as Confetti dei Dossi.
The cave is located in Triassic dolomites on the north-western side of Monte Calvario (Mount Calvary). The plain around Cuneo ends on three sides with the foothills of the Alps. Mondovì is still in the plain at a height of about 530 m asl, but is surrounded by the hills which reach almost 800 m. The soluble rock and the elevation caused the karstification of the hills, which all drain underground. There are numerous small karst springs at the foot of the hills, where the water reappears. Pesio on the western side of the hills and Torrente Ellero on the eastern, as well as any other river in this plain, are tributaries of Po river.