A unique place!
Since Antiquity, the whole Mont-Cenis area has always had its strategic and commercial importance but it also played a military role during the Second World War. Many fortifications are still present and can be visited, like the forts of Ronce, Varisselle, La Turra and Malamot.
At an altitude of 2,000 metres, Mont-Cenis was a very busy passageway between the Haute Maurienne valley in France and the Susa valley in Italy, and was home to a hospice, a priory and a natural lake.
The “gravity dam” built between 1962 and 1968 feeds, among others, the hydroelectric power stations of Villarodin-Bourget.
After the priory was engulfed, a pyramid-shaped chapel was built and can now be walked around in the alpine garden where some rare species of flower can be seen.
