In 1968, on the hillside above Quart, more than sixty cist tombs came to light: four slabs set upright in the ground and a larger one laid over them, resting straight on the soil with no paving. This is the necropolis of Vollein, among the oldest evidence of human presence in the Aosta Valley, and it is free to visit.
What to see
The graves occupy a roughly rectangular area of some twenty metres by thirty. Around them the rock is split by a grid of trenches that squares off the ground and creates covered corridors and open lanes: it is the most studied trench system in the region. On the east side a tall vertical wall still stands, now crossed by climbing routes, and it measures the forty-odd metres by which the ground subsided; the great central block still carries, in its original orientation, the surface polished by the Quaternary glacier. Numerous rock engravings from the second millennium BC are scattered over the stone.
Visiting
You come from Quart along regional road 37 as far as Vollein; from the village you walk down about 300 metres and an equipped path reaches the site in a few minutes. From the necropolis the central valley opens up. The geologist Francesco Prinetti notes that a place this defensible would suggest a prehistoric village, though no trace of one has been found: for now only the graves speak.
Our editors' tip
Do not come expecting an open-air museum: these are stone slabs among boulders, and without the panels they would be hard to read. Allow an extra half hour to walk among the blocks, where the ground still slides a few millimetres a year.