Bellino

Bellino, Blins in Occitan, lies at the head of the Valle Varaita, on a spur of Monte Ferra, bordering the Queyras and the upper Ubaye: from the lowest hamlet, at fourteen hundred metres, the ground climbs to the Gran Rubrèn at over three thousand in some ten kilometres. In 1370 the territory running from Casteldelfino to Bellino and Pontechianale was annexed to the Dauphiné and became part of the Kingdom of France. In 1713, by the Treaty of Utrecht, Louis XIV ceded it to the Duke of Savoy in exchange for the county of Barcelonnette and the upper Ubaye valley, whence the name the valley still carries, Vallée cédée.

The Varaita divides the territory in two, the western slope generous with pasture and summer grazing, the southern mostly wooded; access to the highest grass followed unwritten rules: nobody went up before the 26th of July. Near the hamlet of Chiazale, on the east bank of the stream, the remains of an iron mine worked until the mid-eighteenth century can still be seen. More than thirty sundials are counted in the hamlets, and the coat of arms shows a golden fox on a green field beside a large silver B.