The ancient Communa or Comunia (term conserved in the dialectal voice Cmen-na), identified a territorial entity (Bosco delle Sorti) with public-community management; evidence of such use dates back to the XIII century when the Boscum Communis included territories halfway along the Cervino Valley road, west of the Mombaruzzo Woods and north of the Rivo del Ghisone, and other localities such as Boscum Odofredi, Boscum Anglesii, Tabulata de Castagnolis, and Roca Caudroni that cannot be located with certainty today.
Evidence of the presence of the undivided wooded area called “Le Sorti” persists in the current toponymy and in particular in the territory of the Municipality of Bruno along the Rio Ghisone towards the border with the Municipality of Carentino. In the Municipality of Bruno the Bosco delle Sorti still affected as many as 453 days (about 153 hectares) in the 18th century.
The exploitation of forest resources, of which the “Book of Convents” for the drawing of lots of timber currently in Turin is a precious testimony, was moreover the subject of disputes particularly between the communities of Bruno and Mombaruzzo and those nearby, Cassine above all with whom an agreement was made in 1247, but also with those of Maranzana, Quaranti, Castelletto Molina, and Fontanile.
These disputes ended in 1599 when an arbitration ruling established the boundaries of the lands belonging to Mombaruzzo along the left bank of the Rio Cervino.
The 1794 figurative cadastre lists important occurrences of cultivated chestnut trees and a vast forest significantly referred to as the "place of wolves."
The area enclosed by the Bosco delle Sorti enhances the natural, landscape and historical-cultural resources of a large Apennine territory, located between the municipalities of Alice Bel Colle, Cassine and Ricaldone (province of Alessandria), and Bruno, Maranzana and Mombaruzzo (province of Asti).
Safeguard zone, which is home to several thickets of downy oak is a SIR, a site of regional importance.
The reason for protection is because it constitutes one of the northernmost areas of the Mediterranean oceanic range of Erica arborea, a plant used to make brooms and pipes.
Until the 1700s, the forest was managed by a collective local institution: la Partecipanza di Cassine.
Insights
Comune di Maranzana
https://www.comune.maranzana.at.it/
- Bosco delle Sorti
https://www.comune.maranzana.at.it/it/page/bosco-delle-sorti
