VAL DI PEIO>THE TOWNS> COGOLO

Cógolo is the principal town of the borough, and it is the centre for services, which are of major interest to the public. It rises up on the alluvial cone of the river Gattus, which many years ago and recently has been subject to various landslides. It is probably because of this gravelly embankment that has given the town its name, derived from the Latin word côcula (ball, and a word in dialect "ciottolo"). The mineral water bottling factory of Pejo Terme, was established in 1952, and has its main plant in Cogòlo.
The pipes for the artificial basins of Careser and Pian Palù, converge at the entrance of Val de la Mare power the Enel of Pònt power station.
The visitors’ centre for Stilfser Joch National Park is at the entrance of the town. On the right just after the town hall, there is a house, where in September 1853; Austrian gendarmes arrested Pier Fortunato Calvi along with some of his friends who had arrived from Switzerland for Cadore with the intention of reorganising the Risorgimento movement. A plaque has been erected in memory of this event. The old parish of Saints Filippo and Giacomo, built in 1332, is a little further ahead. There have been many restorations and enlargements carried out, with subsequent work during the centuries. The northern wall merits interest as frescoes and decorations, the only example of solandra art of this size cover it. This is the work of Giovanni Angelo Valorsa da Grosio, in Valtellina (1643). The chapel of S. Antonio built in the 500s is next to the church and was once open.
The church square separates the church from the cemetery and from the castle Migazzi, fortified ancestral home with angular projection dated 500. An impressive barbican, set in the corner, is a testimony of the existence of a tower, which was later enlarged to become a home at the beginning of 400 when the Migazzi family took up residence there. Until 1952 the facade overlooking the road was once the battlement wall with portal. Some parts have been restored and the borough library is now situated there. Once out of the town going towards Val de la Mare, we come across the chapel of the Madonna Nera o "della Morea", which according to a legend was transported there by a landslide from the settlement of Pegàia. The only example left of the small church, dating back to 500, and dedicated to the saints Bartolomeo, Paolo e Tommaso, remains at the bottom of the pastureland. Perhaps minors inhabited the settlement of Pegaia, which was destroyed at the beginning of the XVth century. There is still a strong devotion to the “deceased of Pegaia”, of which remains have been discovered only recently. There are frescoes attributed to Baschenis in the interior (1513). It has been said that it was part of an old hospice on the Montozzo and Sforzellina roads.
An asphalt road for approximately 11km leads from the plain to Malga Mare where many excursions for Cevedale and the Larcher chalet start.

Text by Rinaldo Delpero pejo@biblio.infotn.it