The castle at the entrance to the village stands on a peak of ophiolite, above a gorge with the Vezzeno running at its bottom: Charlemagne gave it to the church of Piacenza in 780. The old name was Cagnano, while Gropparello comes from the Lombard groppo, a rounded rise; Cagnano fell out of use before the end of the nineteenth century.
Here, from 1866, they looked for oil: the search passed from a Genoese company to the count of the castle, then to a French one, and in 1888 extraction at Montechino became operational. In April 1945 the Allies bombed the wells, which the partisans were using to fuel their vehicles; the work closed down in 1950. Part of the territory is a geological reserve for its Pliocene fossils.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
Near Gropparello
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Places to see within 25 km
Outside Gropparello, but an easy day trip away.