A unique place!
The Mont-Cenis as a whole, since Antiquity, has always been of strategic and commercial importance but also military during the Second World War. Many fortifications are still present and visitable: fort of Ronce, fort of Varisselle, fort of the Turra, fort Malamot.
A very busy passageway with an altitude of 2,000m between France, Haute Maurienne valley and Italy, Val de Suse, Mont-Cenis 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.
The engulfment of the priory by the waters led to the construction of a pyramid-shaped chapel around which one can walk in the alpine garden sheltering rare floral species.
