The Cunardo gorge
A unique Carse phenomenon provides opportunities for walks and educational visits.
The Cunardo gorge is a Carse feature, a labyrinth of tunnels and caves excavated by the river Margorabbia which, in its flood season, flows with such a high volume of water as to make access to most of the caves impossible. Amongst these natural caverns, the most important in the gorge area is the so-called Antro dei Morti ("hall of the dead"), which is in two separate sections. The Cunardo Carse cave system has been explored repeatedly by experts and caving specialists, because access is easy, and particularly because it is so close to the town.
The river Margorabbia, whose source is on Monte Martica, runs through the entire Valganna valley. After a considerable vertical drop near Cunardo, it runs towards Valcuvia before joining the river Tresa and thence into Lake Maggiore near Luino. It is near the location where it drops abruptly, between Cunardo and Ferrera, that the river Margorabbia has perforated the rock structure to form these caves, a succession of cavities that generate an underground Carse phenomenon. This is the only example in Lombardy of a natural underground section of a river that elsewhere runs almost entirely on the surface.
The Cunardo gorge is a Carse feature, a labyrinth of tunnels and caves excavated by the river Margorabbia which, in its flood season, flows with such a high volume of water as to make access to most of the caves impossible. Amongst these natural caverns, the most important in the gorge area is the so-called Antro dei Morti ("hall of the dead"), which is in two separate sections. The Cunardo Carse cave system has been explored repeatedly by experts and caving specialists, because access is easy, and particularly because it is so close to the town.
The river Margorabbia, whose source is on Monte Martica, runs through the entire Valganna valley. After a considerable vertical drop near Cunardo, it runs towards Valcuvia before joining the river Tresa and thence into Lake Maggiore near Luino. It is near the location where it drops abruptly, between Cunardo and Ferrera, that the river Margorabbia has perforated the rock structure to form these caves, a succession of cavities that generate an underground Carse phenomenon. This is the only example in Lombardy of a natural underground section of a river that elsewhere runs almost entirely on the surface.
