Trappa di Sordevolo

La Trappa di Sordevolo takes its name from a community of Trappist monks, who, fleeing revolutionary France, inhabited it for only six years between 1796 and 1802, when Napoleon arrived in Piedmont.

The construction began in the mid-1700s, led by Gregorio Ambrosetti, a textile entrepreneur and landowner, with the hidden intention of establishing a Passionist convent. However, opposition from the local Municipality and Parish prevented this plan. After Ambrosetti's death and the subsequent period with the Trappists, the large structure was left unfinished and was partially used as a grazing area until the late 1900s.

The Ambrosetti Institute, the current owner of the complex, promoted the establishment of the Associazione della Trappa in 1998, initiating its restoration within the Ecomuseo Valle Elvo e Serra. Efforts focused on researching its history, restoring traditional building techniques, regenerating the terraced landscape, offering hospitality in the monks’ former cells, and rediscovering an authentic cuisine. Today, La Trappa has become an open and inclusive place, creative and educational, productive and welcoming: a "school for new inhabitants," a "third-millennium monastery," and a "mountain citadel" where the past and future converge.