Stroppo

The name turns up in a document of 899 as Villa Stropo; some scholars tie it to the dialect word strup, a flock or group, fitting a village spread over seventeen hamlets on the slope. Estròp in Occitan, Stroppo sits about halfway along the Valle Maira, on the old ways to the Stura, Grana and Varaita valleys, and in the Middle Ages counted as capital of the twelve free communes of the upper valley. It still holds the Convitto Alpino, the upper valley's only middle school.

Standing alone at 1,233 metres on the road to Elva, the church of San Peyre is Romanesque and grew in phases. The main apse has a Christ in majesty between Saints Peter and Paul with the apostles, from the late fourteenth century; in the smaller apse the funeral of the Virgin is given, with reservations, to Antonio Pocapaglia. At Caudano stands the lazaretto of 1463, once a hospital, then a plague house, bought and repaired by the comune.