Roccavione was a nidus hereticorum, a nest of heretics: when crusaders and inquisitors drove the Cathars and Waldensians out of Languedoc, the escape route ran over the Col di Tenda, and many stopped here. Anselm of Alexandria writes it: "ad Rocavien... ubi stabant cathari qui venerant de Francia ad habitandum". From that story comes the nickname of the locals, tarü, that is Cathars.
Above the town stands the rock of San Sudario, cut sheer for a hundred metres or so: the people are fond enough of it to have put it on their arms, with the tower that once commanded the borgo above it. Higher up, on the Bric Berciassa, stood an Iron Age settlement.
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📅 Every year, on the third Sunday of August; the «La Rocca dei Catari» re-enactment is held nearly every June
Roccavione celebrates Saint Magnus on the third Sunday of August; almost every year, in June, the historical re-enactment «La Rocca dei Catari» is held, in which the town revives the medieval age of the heresy. The second Sunday of October brings the Castagnata, or Chestnut Festival.
Straight-line distances from the town centre. Tap a point to open its page.
The closest destinations covered by our editors, with straight-line distance.
Outside Roccavione, but an easy day trip away.
