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You are here: Quarna
Quarna Sotto (just more than 400 inhabitants) and Quarna Sopra (about 300 inhabitants) are situated in a narrow valley that opens to the south of Omegna and that divides for a short while the wider Strona valley from Valsesia. Quarna Sotto is situated at a height of 800 meters above sea level and Quarna Sopra is not far, on an upland where the sight from the woods opens on the lake, at a height of about 860 meters above sea level.Two mountain suburbs, already attested ever since Roman times on the basis of some discoveries, whose economy was based on breeding and agriculture: even today, there are many mountain pastures – such as in Camasasca, at a height of 1230 meters above sea level – that you can reach both from Monte Croce (1643 meters) and Massa del Turlo (1959 meters).
During the XIXth century, many inhabitants would emigrate in search of a job, generally in Torinese and Milanese factories, but also abroad. One of these emigrants, the turner Egidio Forni, during the first half of the XIXth century came back to his native country - Quarna Sotto – taking with him the art, learnt in Milan, of flute manufacture.
This experience brought about many handicraft activities of musical instrument manufacture, not only made of wood but also of metal. Quarno production increased and some factories become very popular on the market of musical instruments, for instance Agostino Rampone`s factory, which became then Rampone & Cazzani and opened a commercial office in Milan, exporting instruments all over the world.
One of the industries that, in the second half of the XIXth century, knew a flourishing period, is still at work. Quarna Sotto has consecrated a museum to this traditional and peculiar activity, the Ethnographical Museum of Wind Instruments.