History - museo walser
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HISTORY OF MACUGNAGA
The first document that mentions MACUGNAGA dates back to 999 A.D. where the archbishop Arnulfo of Milan exchanged with the abbot Lanfredo of the Arona monastery four “alpicelli” (Vaccareccia, Carda, Macuniaga and Rovi) and four “stellaree” (Pedriola, Drausa Regis, Cacia Mezana and Quarazola). Walser settlers had only been permanently living in this village since the second half of XIII century when Aldisia Crollamonte De Castello, lady of the Visp valley, married Gotofredo di Biandrate and brought as a dowry the right to transfer shepherds from the canton Valais to Macugnaga. It then began a slow but progressive colonization of the village.
WALSER HISTORY
Because of financial straits and overpopulation during the central centuries of the Middle Age, in the IX and X century A.D. some German-Alemannian settlers arrived in high Valais where the first group of the supranational Walser population was established. Between XIII and XIV century migrations from this large region began. It was not a mass exodus: little groups went through alpine passes and settled in uninhabited regions. It can be said that Walser are a “POPULATION” because all settlements share the same Christian-Catholic