The thirteenth point of the Malcantone Mining Park Trail is the Menhir of the Motto del Risc

As already mentioned elsewhere on the Mineral Park Trail, the presence of the Celts (Ligurians, etc.) in this area has left much evidence in the area that can still be observed and rediscovered today.

At the point where we find ourselves, we notice a pile of stones, some of which are not indifferent in size. These stones often bear cupping engravings typical of these civilisations. Unfortunately, these boulders were often removed from their original position and even broken into pieces to be transported elsewhere to build medieval villages. In this area until a decade ago, before the drinking water reservoir was built, one could still see a kind of canal (sovenda) that descended towards the village of Costa that served as a ‘guide’ for transporting the stones removed from this site.

The boulders that can still be seen here were probably components of constructions for cult purposes and are found at several sites along the Scerèe ridge to form a kind of east-west alignment.

Here we also notice a large triangle-shaped boulder in the top part of which cuppelle can still be glimpsed. This boulder was upturned on one side, but one could easily guess that it must have been placed in a vertical position (menhir) to serve as a calendar of the seasons.

At the two equinoxes standing in the position of the menhir, which was again placed vertically, the rising of the sun aligns with the summit of the Gheggio (Bedea) hill between Curio and Novaggio, at the winter solstice the rising of the sun corresponds to the summit of Monte Mondini and at the summer solstice it aligns with the summit of the Alned hill above Novaggio.

A line joining this menhir with the cuppellar boulder at about 385 m to the west-northwest, which is also signposted on this trail, and continuing in this direction, shows that it aligns perfectly with the summit of Monte Clivio above Dumenza, the highest point of the Scerée hill. This line connects the two extremes of the Scerée hill. It is very probable that other menhirs were placed on this line that were taken in later eras for the construction of buildings or agricultural reclamation work. Further confirmation comes from the perfect parallelism with the line of chestnut trees in the Perlá area under which boulders accumulated with the land reclamation work can be seen.