Valtorta (Altòrta in Bergamo dialect) is an Italian town of 295 inhabitants in the province of Bergamo, in Lombardy.
It is located in Val Stabina, on the side of the upper Val Brembana, about 50 km north-west of the orobic capital.
A small village nestled among the mountains, which owes the origin of its place name to the tortuous conformation (tortuous valley) that this small valley has, does not include episodes of depth in its history.
However, it is common custom to believe that the first stable settlements in this area can be traced back to the time of the barbarian invasions, when the populations subject to raids took refuge in remote places, sheltered from the rush of the conquering hordes. In particular, it is presumed that it was the inhabitants of nearby Valsassina who arrived first (presumably around the sixth century), as evidenced by some place names that are the same between the two areas. In this sense it was for a long time linked to the parish church of Primaluna, situated in the above mentioned valley, with which the village is connected by the Piani di Bobbio, now a renowned tourist resort.
However, in medieval times this small village, together with the nearby municipality of Cassiglio, developed a flourishing mining activity of materials such as iron and silver, with the consequent development of activities linked to them, such as the working of iron in nails through hammers driven by the numerous watercourses that cross the municipal territory. It is said that the iron came from the Valle di Scalve and the Val Seriana, and a large number of workers were employed for its processing.
The exploitation of this potential placed this small valley at the centre of the aims of the lords of the Torriani family and the Viscontipoi family.
Everything continued with the arrival of the Serenissima, which, unlike its predecessors, guaranteed numerous reliefs to the entire area.
In this period was born Girolamo Regazzoni, perhaps the most important village in the history of this small village. After emigrating to Venice, then the center of all activities, he was first elected bishop of Bergamo, then apostolic nuncio to Paris, also participating in the Council of Trent.
The end of the Venetian domination and the consequent advent of the Cisalpine Republic brought great changes to Valtorta, which found itself incorporated in the canton of the upper Val Brembana, with its capital in Piazza, and many privileges that the Republic of San Marco had granted for centuries to the entire area were revoked. The following years saw the French domination succeed the Austrian one, until 1859, when the Kingdom of Italy was born.
Recent times have not reported episodes of particular importance, if not the tragedy caused by an avalanche that, in 1888, caused the death of thirty people in the Torre district.
The 20th century saw the progressive closure of the mines, which started a slow but inexorable process of depopulation. This was partially mitigated by the development of tourism, which gave new impetus to the local economy, also helped by the revival of typical local products, especially in the dairy sector.
Italian