Piemonte without a car | Ivrea-Biella Stage 2: Andrate-Graglia Sanctuary

The route offers several attractions: the Casale hamlet of the Municipality of Donato, the western tip of the Elvo Valley, characterized by a village with fountains, wash houses, votive pillars, pleasant views between the narrow streets interrupted by picturesque squares and surrounded by greenery. The old water mill along the course of the Ingagna torrent, downstream of the Cerea hamlet of the Municipality of Netro, recently renovated and still in operation, which still produces flour today, in particular organic corn and wheat.

In the Ingagna valley, a tributary of the Elvo, ironworking dates back to the Celtic populations. Since the 13th century, numerous forges were built along the waterways, today a thematic route, curated by the Associazione Ecomuseo Valle Elvo & Serra, which unites the Ecomuseum cell of Netro with that of Mongrando. In Netro, you can visit the Ecomuseum of Iron - at the former Officine Rubino - a company that for many years represented a point of reference for ironworking in the area. Inside, you can admire a vast collection of tools, machinery and documents that tell the story of the evolution of the processing systems and their connection with local traditions.

Arriving at the Sanctuary of Graglia allows you to visit an example of Piedmontese Baroque: built in the 17th century, it was born from the desire to create a "Calvary of Jerusalem" in the Biella area. Although the initial project (which included the construction of 100 chapels) was not completed, the site has become an important place of Marian worship dedicated to the Madonna of Loreto. In 1659, it was decided to transform the votive chapel into the current structure, integrated in the 1930s with the current garden of the Madonna, characterized by the splendid stone “burnel” (fountain).

The interior of the sanctuary houses numerous works of sacred art of great value, including frescoes, statues and decorated altars. The dome is particularly evocative. The complex includes a guesthouse and a refectory to welcome pilgrims and visitors, representing a perfect mix of spirituality, culture and natural beauty: a place of peace and spirituality immersed in the green hills of Biella.

The hendecasyllable echo is a curious uniqueness of the site: along the path that leads from the Sanctuary of Graglia to the hill of San Carlo, immediately behind the Grand Hotel, you can experience the acoustic phenomenon, already known since the eighteenth century and which consists in the perfect vocal reproduction of the word shouted in the direction of the Sanctuary. It is called hendecasyllable because, in ideal weather conditions, it can reproduce a word of eleven syllables. It is a rare and fascinating echo, of which only one other case is known in the world in the Grand Canyon of Colorado.

The development and history of the Municipality of Graglia are also linked to water: the oldest work, shrouded in legend, is the canalization of part of the Janca torrent, which went on to form the irrigation ditch called "dei Saraceni", which until the 1950s flowed clear in the open air. On the border with Mongrando, the Ingagna reservoir has also become a naturalistic oasis.