Borgo Chiese
Borgo Chiese è un comune del Trentino sud-occidentale, nato il 1° gennaio 2016 dalla fusione di Brione, Cimego e Condino, che ne è...
Mis à jour le 18 juillet 2026
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L'histoire de Borgo Chiese
Borgo Chiese in the Chiese Valley, Between the Giudicarie Esteriori and the Lombard Border
The municipality of Borgo Chiese occupies the southern part of the Chiese Valley, the branch of the Giudicarie that stretches south almost to the province of Brescia and Lake Idro. Formed by the administrative merger of Brione, Cimego and Condino, it brings together around two thousand residents across a territory of more than fifty square kilometres, spanning the valley floor followed by the Chiese river and the mountain slopes rising toward the inner Giudicarie. Condino, the main town and seat of the municipal offices, sits centrally along the valley and is documented as far back as the 13th century as a reference point for the surrounding rural communities. Cimego, at a higher elevation, is split between the Villa quarter and the older Quartinago district, while Brione retains a markedly agricultural layout. This frontier position, close to Lombardy, has historically made the territory a crossroads of influences, still visible today in its architecture, traditions and local cuisine.
The Churches of Condino: Santa Maria Assunta and the Baschenis Frescoes
The most important monument in Borgo Chiese is the parish church of Santa Maria Assunta in Condino, built on a site of worship documented as early as 1192 and completely rebuilt between 1495 and 1509 under master builder Albertino Comanedi, who doubled its size and transformed it from a late-Gothic Lombard structure into a spacious Renaissance building. Inside, it preserves frescoes, historic altars and sacred artworks produced by numerous artists commissioned to decorate it over the centuries, making it one of the most significant artistic sites in the Giudicarie. A short distance away, on the hill of San Lorenzo, the small church of the same name houses a 16th-century fresco cycle begun in 1519 by Cristoforo Baschenis and completed in 1522 by his son Simone, members of the renowned family of itinerant painters active across the Alps: the scenes depict the life of St Lawrence and a Madonna and Child with Saints Stephen and John the Baptist, which survived almost miraculously the military fortifications later built around the church during the First World War.
Cimego, the Roman Mines and the Rio Caino Ethnographic Trail
The hamlet of Cimego holds the oldest traces of the territory: it is the only place in the Chiese Valley where Roman-era inscriptions have been found, evidence of a mining centre dedicated to iron extraction whose galleries extended toward Condino, Castello and Valle Aperta as well. The memory of this activity, which continued in artisanal form into recent times, lives on today along the Rio Caino ethnographic trail, a loop of roughly four kilometres linking a restored old forge, the remains of mills and workshops, and a suspended bridge over the stream, set in a landscape of woods and narrow gorges. The historic core of Cimego, split between the lower Villa quarter and the higher Quartinago district, still shows a legible medieval layout in its narrow lanes and stone houses, while local tradition also ties the area to the heretical preaching of Fra Dolcino, active in various Alpine valleys between the late 13th century and 1307.
The Chiese River, the Great War and Protected Nature
The territory of Borgo Chiese is crossed by the Chiese river, which rises from the Vedretta di Fumo glacier on the Adamello massif and flows down through the Val di Fumo and the Val di Daone before reaching the valley floor at Condino, continuing on to Lake Idro, of which it is both the main inflow and the sole outflow. Along its course the river shapes the Rete di Riserve Valle del Chiese, a mosaic of river and mountain environments protecting diverse flora and fauna. The same valley was, between 1915 and 1918, the border line between the Kingdom of Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire: Italian troops occupied Condino and Cimego in the first days of the war and later fortified positions such as the hill of San Lorenzo, where military works still surround the frescoed church, while at Cimego forest clearing has uncovered a stretch of front-line trench in exceptional condition. The Monte Borei route, starting from the Rango locality in Cimego, today lets visitors retrace these paths through woods and old borderlines.
History and Experiences Between Border and Tradition
The history of Condino is documented at least from 1221, when a deed records a dispute between rural communities in the valley, and for centuries the territory remained tied to the border dynamics between Trentino's episcopal powers and Venetian and Lombard influences. On 16 July 1866, during the Third Italian War of Independence, the area near Condino was the scene of a clash between Giuseppe Garibaldi's volunteers and Austrian troops, an episode that led Garibaldi to focus on besieging the Ampola fort before continuing his advance. After being independent municipalities for most of the 20th century, with Cimego merged and then separated again from Condino over the decades, Brione, Cimego and Condino chose in 2016 to unite into a single municipality, Borgo Chiese, relaunching a shared identity together. Today the territory is also experienced through its food traditions, such as polenta carbonera made with cornmeal and buckwheat flour paired with cured meats and aged cheeses, and through sports like paragliding, speedflying and canyoning, practised on the slopes and gorges that frame the valley.
Not to be missed
- Church of Santa Maria Assunta in Condino, a Renaissance masterpiece of the Giudicarie
- Church of San Lorenzo, with 16th-century frescoes by Cristoforo and Simone Baschenis
- Rio Caino ethnographic trail in Cimego, with a restored forge, mills and suspended bridge
- Great War remains on the hill of San Lorenzo and in the trenches of Cimego
- A walk along the Chiese river between the hamlets of Brione, Cimego and Condino
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