A bit of history...

From prehistoric times

The upper Varaita valley was inhabited since prehistoric times; Some testimonies prove it (rock carvings and tombs).
At the end of the first millennium it was prey to the raids and raids of the Saracens who had settled in La Garde Freinet in Provence; the Baìo di Sampeyre and the Beò di Bellino refer to them, recalling and representing their expulsion from the valley.

From 1713 onwards

For almost four centuries, the four municipalities (now three, with the union of Chianale a Ponte) of the upper valley, the Castellata, were politically linked to the Brianzonese, participating in an experience of autonomy unique for those times, the République des Escartouns.
In 1713, with the Treaty of Utrecht, its political unity was broken; in the transalpine part the autonomies were respected, and they survived until the French Revolution; in the Cisalpine part, despite the promises of the Duke of Savoy, the traditional autonomies of the escartouns of Casteldelfino, Pragelato and Oulx were completely emptied, and the territories followed the entire evolution of the Italian epic.