Ligurian Tommy Leggy

This natural menhir (“adopted"menhir as Mr. Carmelo Prestipino said) is standing right in the middle of Ligurian gulf (as you can check in the map), and this says much already. Is seated in a very sacred area where there are springs called “Holy water” (Acquasanta), very close to Issel’s Stone, Giutte’s Long Cairn and the first Kelly’s Rock. It was discovered already four years ago by my friend Angela but only now I show it and share it over here...(silly me). Ciao !

At the north of Issel’s Stone, an altar stone made of cupmarks, on the right bank of a small stream there’s this pretty rock with a footprint’s mark; footprints testify the high sacredness of a site.
This engrave is made for offerings of the water’s cult. Water the life bringer... This area is still named “Acquasanta” that means “Holy Water”.

It was there on the left of Priafaia Altar Stone, but I didn’t noticed before; I was blinded by the beauty of the big altar stone next to it.
It took the special female look of Angela to find it.
A small but nice stone with fine cupmarks.

Mistycal Bric Aliberti
(the child in me likes to play with the words misty and mystical because this site it has a mystical atmosphere and it’s very often covered by mist).

On western slopes of Sacred Mount Beigua this hill called Bric Aliberti has on its own slopes an engraved stone and on its top a pinewood with this particular zone.
Displayed on a wide field between pine trees there’s a ruined rough-hewn menhir, about two meters long, a small standing stone and lots of “strange stones” all around (I’ve reported here only some of them).
But what I like the most here is the particular atmosphere.

When a place is called Faires (Faie) is enough to take a walk around with eyes wide open and the less it can happens it’s finding “something”.
Well, I don’t know if those are the menhirs I’ve read about in: archaeoastronomy.it/un_percorso_rituale.htm .(sorry in italian).
But what it’s written in the article corresponds to what I’ve found.
South of Faie’s Village, at the edge of a field and next to a river; three pulled down menhirs and one still standing but in precarious position, two and a half meters long each.
On the article it’s said that there are some old inhabitant of the village reminding of a stone’s alignment next to that river, still visible some decade ago.
Two ruined menhirs are clearly showing traces of human’s engravings as cups and rough-hewings.
I’d like to dedicate this finding to Canidia, Wido and Jonathan as sign of friendship.

Another sacred area on the sacred Mount Beigua district. This site is on the southern slopes of Mount Priafaia (Mount Fairy’s Rock).

Not far from Priafaia Altar Stone, Ceresa, Strada Megalitica del Monte Beigua and Faie’s Altar Rock.

In a deep wood, with small streams all over, beside
an ancient abandoned track can be found a menhir and several gigantic rocks. Two of them are engraved with niches and pairs of holes or cups.

The pattern of engraved cups in pair is typical of this area.

Nice atmosphere.

Those two rocks really reminds me of certain tales
where guardians were magically turned to stone.
They are standing aligned on both sides of an ancient abandoned path leading to the Mount Grosso’s top.
As two guardians.
A portal...

I think La Grande Roccia holds a great power.
While you’re walking in the half-shade of a beech-wood suddenly it’ll appear in front of you
as a shining silver dome, as an UFO...
And when you’ll approach it, you’ll find out that it’s cut in two by a deep break as chopped by a big force. Beside it there’s a nice spring. And it’s covered by engravings.
So this was a sacred place for ancient Ligurians.
This site it’s very suggestive and I believe “that” strong energy is still there.

A Sanctuary
When I visited this place for the first time I had in mind two songs: Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” and “A Day In The Life” from Beatles.
The Led Zep song because there’s really a natural stairway that brings to the central Altar’s stone.
And that stone is seventy meters tall.
The Beatles song because it says:“I read the news
today oh boy/ Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire/ And though the holes were rather small/ They had to count them all...“. There’s an incredible numbers of cup marks all around the central Altar (somebody count 3249).
Jocking apart it’s really a remarkable place with a strong spiritual atmosphere. A serpent’s shape engraving on the Altar.
Most of the engraved cups are made (often in pairs) at the edge of the terraced rocks as if...
flying spirits could easyer go to pick their offerings.

Sometime when you see those sites pictured in a book in black & white they don’t seem that much good.
Then when you visit them you understand that the book wasn’t a good one.
I’ve been surprised by the beauty of this place and
I’ve wished some friend was there with me to share my joy.

Plenty of small streams all around so the place was chosen for water’s cult, pastoral culture, simple, delicate engravings, peaceful, female in a word. And when I saw an hawthorn’s bush beside the rock I understood more...

The rock took its name by Professor A.Issel who studied and report it at the beginning of the last century. Is 2,80 meters long and 1,40 meters high. Down in the valley there’s a christian sanctuary called Acquasanta (Holy water...) where people use the water of a sacred fountain to cure their problems. I found this site because of a book (a good one)
written by Mr.Italo Pucci and Mr.Ausilio Priuli.

I bumped into this site while I was running down a hill with my son. And I’ve immediatly thought:“Hmm...those stones...“.

A spring surrounded by stones that gives water to a quiet softly-singing stream.
A short path (surrounded by stones too) that leads, from the spring, to a partial circle of stones.
Few big stones scattered all around.

But I don’t go back there anymore because it’s on a private propriety and year by year some stones are caught and carried away to be re-used for buildings.
And I can’t stand it, but there’s nothing I can do against it yet.

In Ceresa, on the banks of a stream (nearby, on the opposite banks, stands Ceresa 1’s menhir) there’s this flat stone.

Three meters long, with only two engraved small cups.

A very simple and delicate cult of waters. Let me say...something very female.

From a pastoral culture.

In Maudagna Valley, on a hill overlooking the town of Frabosa Sottana, at the south of Maudagna Valley’s engraved stone and not far from it. There’s this Sacred Area with two barrows and three menhirs.

The site it’s been discovered by Mr. Sergio Piazzo.

At the north of the village called Faie (Faires), along the track that leads to Monte Beigua, there’s this typical altar stone. On top of a small hill with a cup’s shaped engrave and a short and little drainage canal.

I found it because it was described in a book writted by Mr. Italo Pucci and Mr. Ausilio Priuli.

A very interesting site.

This mountain called Bisalta (or Besimauda) it’s interesting not only because has a nice menhir and few engravings but also because holds mystery.

The name Bisalta means something like “twice high” probably because has two tops instead of one. It overlooks the all plain. And its also defined “Door of the Alps”. And, mostly...there are lots of stories telling of UFO apparitions about this mountain.

An evidence can be found in the “strange” sculpture (see the pictures) wich stands not far from the menhir on its left. Both are on the southern slopes of the mountain.

Those findings were all made by members of ARS (Scientific Research Association), Villanova Mondovì (CN).ars2000.it/index.htm
I wanna thanks them all here.

Sited inside the Park of Belbo river’s spring.

I think this menhir it’s been moved from its original setting, to be re-used as milestone or border-stone.
But before of that use it’s been christianised.

Under christian’s crosses can be guessed, almost completly erased, engraved traces of a fertility’s cult.

My thanks to Mr.Giovanni & Mr.Sergio Piazzo (my greats local guides).

I found it beside a spring where wildboars go to play with mud. In the heart of a deep forest. (In the past this forest was called “bosco scuro”-dark wood).
The next year when I went back there I had a bad surprise. I found that unknown woodcutters chopped down almost all the trees around it.
The “atmosphere” was gone but happily the menhir was still there. I wonder for how long it’ll be found still there. Maybe until somebody will not think to throw away those “useless stone” from the wood...
On his front surface there are two small cup-shaped engravings with small drainage canals, and another cup engraving on the backside.
His front side reminds me of a female shape.
On the backside the margin of the stone has a strange shape as it has melted...
Around the menhir there are two stones, appearing pulled down, with some engravings.

Maudagna Valley’s engraved stone
(abstract from-“Roccia Incisa in Val Maudagna (CN)“- Bulletin of Survey 1991-1992, n.7-8. by Italo Pucci and Flavio Gastaldi).

“The rock stands out on the side of a hill facing the Maudagna valley. It is located inside a wood and near Bellino House (Frabosa Sottana). The place was important for its stock-raising, exploitation of chestnut trees and has been populated by Ligurians.

The rock shows some cups connected by linear engravings that in their terminal parts come out from the surface.
It is possible to deem that the engravings are connected to the rituals of the waters cult.”

Very simple engravings made by very simple people, for a simple essential use.

I have to thank Mr.Giovanni and Mr.Sergio Piazzo
of the ARS organisation Villanova Mondovì (Cuneo). They are my great local guides to it.

Bassi’s dolmen.

I found it hidden in a deep forest. On the top of a small hill.
All around there are feeble traces that an “expert eye”(I’m jocking) can’t miss. Like the old track that leads to it, with its rocks alignment running on both sides.
Two big rocks (about two meters long each) on his sides looking as two pulled down menhirs. Stone traces of a foundation. And two suspect engravings.

Deversi. Sun adorer’s engrave.

An ancient engrave on an ancient site. Very close to Deversi Pietra delle Masche. Found by Professor Renzo Amedeo.

The Ratoira’s Lake Menhir.

A menhir in a lovely scenery. The Alps mountains and a small pretty alpine lake. A very special atmosphere...a big Thank to Mr. Sergio Piazzo who guide me to it !

Found by Professor Janigro D’Acquino. It was re-utilized by Romans as tombstone. They wrote “SEX MAIORI M:f:CAM” on it.

Nowadays it’s kept as an ornament... in a private garden.

Mindino “Chief-Wizard’s Stone”

When I held in my hands the picture of this stone, for the first time, I couldn’t believe my eyes. My friend Vanni Penone who found it years ago told me that because of the making of a new road the stone was destroyed and no more there. Happily he was wrong about it.

This kind of engravings are very rare to find (at least in Italy). I’ve seen another one only once in a book. I choose this name for it because the stylised figure reminds me of a very important person as a chief or a wizard in a tribe. It stands next to a spring. It can be found following the same muletrack that leads to Deversi Pietra delle Masche.

Deversi, Li Cunni. Pietra delle Masche

An interesting engraved stone. I found it thanks to Professor Renzo Amedeo.

A sacred area, in the neighbourhood there are other engraved stones. Ligurian tribes were living here too (so not only in Liguria but also Piemonte, Lombardia and other places in north Italy).

It’s called Pietra delle Masche (Witches’ or Hags’ Stone) because legends tell of witches dancing on the stone on certain nights.

This stone is standing next to a spring. The engravings are spindle-shaped carvings ending in small cups, and others are just small cups.

This stone is very close to the menhirs of Ceresa 1 and Ceresa 2 (to the west of them).

I found this stone thanks to Mr Italo Pucci of Istituno Internazionale di Studi Liguri.

Monte Beigua. Dolmen, Hill, lake and river “Della Biscia”

On the northern slopes of Monte Beigua another sacred area, the other one is in Ceresa 1, Ceresa 2 and Strada Megalitica on the southern slopes.

This area is called “Della Biscia” (of the Water Snake) because there are a lake an hill and a river all named the same “Della Biscia”. It has all to do with the cult of the waters (very plentiful here as on the southern side of the mountain) and with the cult of the “fairy-eel”. Water Snake and Eel are the same thing. But on the hill some engravings are showing also a fertility cult.

The area is not so far from Pietra Scritta, sited on the north-west of Monte Beigua. All around there are many engraved stones and a dolmen that has lost his roof-stone, which can be found next to it.

My big thanks again to Mr Italo Pucci and Mr Fenoglio. Their information has led me to the site.

Always grateful to Mr Italo Pucci and Mr M Fenoglio from the Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri, to the memory of whom I want to dedicate my little work in this site. Because of them I found this great engraved Sacred Stone. It stands on the northern slopes of Monte Beigua on a bank of the river Traversa and it has to do with a water cult.

It appears as a big blackboard where people wrote through the centuries. So engraved there you’ll find prehistoric sacred images together with christian crosses (specially made to exorcise the stone...) together with much more modern engravings, such as people’s names. Anyway the oldest engravings are recognisable and still remarkable.

Ceresa is a place where several prehistoric sites are located and a little bit farther starts the Sacred Path Strada Megalitica Del Monte Beigua.

So it has to be said that all this area was a special sacred place for ancient Ligurians, adorers of elements like water (this area is particularly rich in water) or fire.

In front of this menhir, another menhir higher up than this one that has been thrown down, even in front of the final cromlech at the end of Strada Megalitica stands the Bric Greppino, an hill that attracts lightning in stormy weather. The religion of the ancient Ligurian was animism.

And more evidence the Ligurians were part of Celtic World are some houses that still can be found in the village of Alpicella in the neighbourhood of Ceresa. Those houses, the oldest in the village, are built in a typical celtic way (the walls of the front and the back of the house contain the roof in the central part of the house where the roof stands lower than the front and back walls as holding to protect the roof).

Again I have to thank Mr Italo Pucci and Mr Fenoglio of Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri for the information.

Altar Rock of Sotto di S.Lorenzo.
Very close to the menir of Passo di Mezzaluna, at a lower level, there’s a small valley, once site of a small lake. In the valley stands this Altar Rock with engraved cup and small drainage canal. It was probably used during ceremonies to receive liquids such as water, milk or blood from sacrifices.

On the western slopes of Monte Beigua there’s a hill called Bric Aliberti. On the western slopes of the hill at 820 metres above sea level there’s this engraved rock. This kind of engraving, made by repeated scratching, have the meaning of a ritual: repeating a prayer while scratching the stone. I have to thank Mister Italo Pucci from Istituto Internazionale di Studi Liguri as I found this sacred rock because of his book, written with Mr Ausilio Priuli. The name of the book is:“Incisioni rupestri e megalitismo in Liguria” edited by Priuli & Verlucca.

On the southern slopes of Monte Beigua, in front of Bric Greppino. There’s this Sacred path, a hundred meters long, called “Strada Megalitica”. At his beginning there are two big rocks as threshold, the distance between the two rocks is 1,65 meters. The threshold is close to a fountain. Where the path ends, at an highest level, are the remains of a wide cromlech. Not so far from this site there’s a small village called Faie that means Faires in Ligurian. Next to a hill called Priafaia. In Ligurian Pria means stone and faia means fairy. So the name of that hill is “the stone of the fairy”...

The menhir of “Cian da Munega” (Nun’s Field) standing on top of a hill dominating the Ligurian Sea, could be a good introduction to the sacred mountain Beigua, on the north of the menhir. This mountain was a very important sacred mountain for the ancient Ligurians. It stands right in the center of Ligurian Gulf.