PREFACE

Moghegno is a village on the right bank of the Maggia river, annexed to the Municipality of Maggia since 2004.

Moghegno is distant from the main road network, but is already known in ancient times as a north-south transit area.

Moghegno is heir to a heritage of a naturalistic interest, is based on traditions and is testimonies about the rural population, handcraft production and sensibility about the environment.

Moghegno is a rich territory to be enhanced.

The project begins with a visit to the “Grotti” area, close to the slope behind the nucleus.

The simple and at the same time complex architecture of this area, built with few resources and great ingenuity, led us to create a foundation with the aim to preserve this enormous wealth that few know.

Upon further reflection, we realized that the situation of deterioration created in the “Grotti” area could be generalized to a considerable part of Moghegno’s territory: a territory full of areas of interest, mostly linked to the past peasant and religious tradition, but also to far-sightedness regarding industrial architecture.

Moghegno was already located on the north-south corridor at the time of the ancient Romans and does not represent an isolated entity in its own right; quite the opposite.

The territory is part of a historical cultural axis on the right bank of the Lower Maggia Valley, that from Terre di Pedemonte goes through Aurigeno, continues to the “Carraia” toward Moghegno, passing by the Ronchi zone and then continuing toward Lodano and Alta Valle Maggia. A path that underlines the rural realities of our land, such as sheep shepherding, agriculture, vine growing and collecting chestnuts.

The recovery of this rural and cultural area is not intended with museum purposes, but with the desire to ensure continuity for the constructions and artifacts as well as an economic opportunity linked to tourism. The intention of this project is to create a circular path with points of cultural and naturalistic interest as well as leisure areas, and to serve as a liaison with other projects to safeguard the territory concluded in recent years.

In fact, the “Grotti” are a fundamental element that is still missing in the enhancement of the artifacts to be safeguarded, of which the village of Moghegno is very rich: in recent years mulini, torbe, one of the gra, the chestnut forest and the “Carraia” above the countryside have been restored. Now we want to complete the circular path linked to the peasant tradition with the inclusion of the “Grotti”.

The Moghegno landscape improvement project proposes something new: a highlighting of a past rural life in a modern way.