Scurelle
Scurelle is a municipality in the eastern Valsugana, in Trentino, set on the alluvial plain between the Maso and Chieppena streams...
Updated 18 July 2026
This season · July · Summer
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The story
The story of Scurelle
Scurelle in the Valsugana, along the Brenta
Scurelle lies in the eastern part of the Valsugana, the long valley followed by the Brenta river between central Trentino and the Veneto, just a few kilometres from Borgo Valsugana, the area's main town. The settlement stands on the alluvial plain between the Maso and Chieppena streams, both tributaries of the Brenta, at the foot of the Castellare hill and the village of Spera, at a point where the valley floor widens into one of the broadest bends of the entire Valsugana. The municipal territory, covering about 30 square kilometres, includes the main town and the hamlets of Pianezze, Palua, Paoli, Castellare and Sarzo, and stretches from the valley floor up to the slopes of the Lagorai, also taking in the small Lago di Nassere. This position, along a stretch of valley travelled since antiquity by the Via Claudia Augusta Altinate, has for centuries made Scurelle a place of passage and exchange between the productive agricultural valley floor and the side valleys of the Lagorai.
Val Campelle, Gateway to the Lagorai
From the main town opens Val Campelle, a side valley entirely within the municipal territory of Scurelle that climbs for about 12 square kilometres toward the heart of the Lagorai range, between 1,300 and 1,400 metres of elevation. The Maso stream, which rises in this very valley, marks its floor together with numerous rivulets, while higher up lies the Busa del Lago, also known as Lago di Nassere. Around it, the peaks of the eastern Lagorai, among them Cima Zenon, Cima Nassare, Cima Cengello and Cima Trento, form an amphitheatre of dark rock and high-altitude pastures bordering the territories of Castel Ivano, Telve, Pieve Tesino, Castello Tesino and Cinte Tesino. The valley began to be regularly frequented around the eighteenth century by herders who climbed up in the warm season for grazing, and it saw intense military activity during the First World War, traces of which still remain along the trails. In 2016, a fir tree from Val Campelle was chosen to decorate St Peter's Square in Rome, a testament to the quality of the woods that cover it.
The Valsugana Cycle Path and the Outdoors
Scurelle is connected to the Valsugana cycle path, the cycle-touring route that follows the Brenta river for about 70 kilometres from San Cristoforo al Lago to Bassano del Grappa, largely retracing the course of the ancient Via Claudia Augusta. Riding along the valley floor, the village makes a natural stop for anyone crossing the eastern Valsugana by bike, with the option of detouring into the town centre or continuing among the fields and orchards of the valley floor. But it is above all Val Campelle that offers ground for hiking and outdoor activity throughout the year: in summer, trails and mule tracks lead toward the Conseria refuge and toward Passo Cinque Croci, a link point with the neighbouring valleys of the Lagorai, while the loop route known as the Giro della Val Campelle has become a classic for mountain biking. In winter the same valley turns into ideal ground for snowshoeing, ski mountaineering and Nordic walking, in a setting that stays quiet and uncrowded compared with Trentino's better-known destinations.
Woods, Homesteads and Nature between the Maso and Chieppena
The landscape of Scurelle is shaped by the meeting between the cultivated valley floor and the woods that climb toward the Lagorai. Between the Maso and Chieppena streams stretch fields and meadows, while higher up, toward Val Campelle and Val Caldenave, spruce and larch woods take over, having supplied the valley with timber for centuries, as shown by the episode of the fir tree donated for the Vatican Christmas display. Set within this landscape is the Sentiero dell'acqua, the Water Path, a route that leads visitors along watercourses and old hydraulic structures linked to the milling and craft activities that for centuries harnessed the power of the local streams. Val Caldenave, a stage on the Alta Via del Granito, the long hiking trail that crosses the Lagorai, offers another access point to this mid-mountain environment, where isolated homesteads and small rural clusters still dot the slopes between the valley floor and the first alpine pastures.
History and Experiences in Scurelle
The name Scurelle seems to derive from the Latin "scura", meaning stable or shelter for livestock, a reminder of the stopping-place function the site had along the ancient Via Claudia Augusta Altinate. The ruins of Castel Nerva, today little more than traces on the ground, bear witness to a medieval past marked, as elsewhere in the Valsugana, by fortifications built to control the valley. The most dramatic chapter, however, remains that of the First World War, which devastated the settlement so severely that historian Ottone Brentari called it "the cemetery of Trentino": the village was entirely rebuilt after the war, and in 1928 it was merged into the neighbouring municipality of Strigno, regaining autonomy only in 1946. From a centre of silk mills in the eighteenth century to a hub of paper mills and hydroelectric plants later on, Scurelle is today among the most active artisanal centres of the eastern Valsugana, with the parish church of Santa Maria Maddalena, whose feast is on 22 July, and the church of Saints Martino and Valentino keeping the community's religious memory.
Not to be missed
- Val Campelle and the Busa del Lago (Lago di Nassere) in the heart of the Lagorai
- A hike to the Conseria refuge and Passo Cinque Croci
- The ruins of Castel Nerva and Scurelle's historic centre
- A stop on the Valsugana cycle path along the Brenta
- The Sentiero dell'acqua (Water Path) between the Maso and Chieppena streams
To see
What to see in Scurelle
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Routes in Scurelle
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