FAI Autumn Days in Venaus

On Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 2026, the FAI Autumn Days return, the major event promoted by FAI – Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano ETS, inviting visitors to discover places and stories that form part of Italy’s cultural and landscape heritage. In the Susa Valley, Venaus will be at the heart of a rich programme of openings, guided visits, exhibitions and special events.

For the occasion, four sites and itineraries will open their doors, offering different perspectives on the village and bringing together art, history, memory, industrial architecture and landscape.

The Parish Church of Saints Blaise and Agatha provides an opportunity to travel through several centuries of history within a single building. Alongside the current Neo-Romanesque-Gothic church, the surviving wall of the former church preserves a valuable cycle of frescoes depicting Stories from the Childhood of Christ and Stories of the Passion, painted in 1550. The visit also includes the medieval bell tower and other artistic elements of the complex, creating a fascinating dialogue between the present church and the remains of the earlier building.

Water and energy will be the focus of the visits to the hydroelectric power stations. On Saturday, visitors will have the opportunity to enter the Venaus Hydroelectric Power Station, normally closed to the public, and walk through the tunnel to the large machine room built inside the mountain, a significant example of post-war industrial architecture. The visit will continue outdoors with an introduction to the floating photovoltaic system, described in the press release as the first of its kind in the world built by Enel.

On Sunday, the Pont-Ventoux-Susa Hydroelectric Power Station will open to visitors. Built between 1997 and 2005 and powered by the waters of the Dora Riparia river, the underground facility can be reached by shuttle bus, which will take visitors for more than one kilometre inside the mountain to the heart of the plant, where the two generating units are located.

The programme will also include the walk “Among Frescoes, Legends and Ancient Stones: Venaus in the Past”, an itinerary exploring traces of the village’s history that are still visible today. Frescoes, architectural details, ancient stones, legends and community memories will become clues for reconstructing the historic appearance of Venaus and understanding how time has transformed, preserved or erased places and testimonies.

The programme will be further enriched by a conference and several exhibitions. On Saturday 10 October at 5.30 pm, in the multipurpose hall of the VIII Dicembre hamlet, Andrea Bonelli will give the conference “125 Years of Energy from the Waters of Mont Cenis”, focusing on the history of water resources and energy production in the area.

Throughout both days, the exhibition spaces in the VIII Dicembre hamlet will host “Lake Mont Cenis Today”, “Mont Cenis Before the Dam: An Exhibition to Rediscover Our Roots – Le Mont Cenis avant le barrage” and “From Military Barracks to Mountain Refuge: The Story of Avanzà”. The town hall, meanwhile, will host the exhibitions “Folklore and Traditions of Venaus” and “The Fell Railway”.

During the weekend, volunteers from the FAI Youth Group and the FAI Delegation of the Susa Valley will also be present at information stands dedicated to the Foundation’s activities. Participation in the FAI Autumn Days is accompanied by a voluntary contribution supporting the activities of FAI.

A weekend, therefore, to discover Venaus through its tangible and intangible heritage: from its artistic and architectural treasures to the stories of its community, and from its mountain environment to the relationship between water and energy production.

Full programme and information: giornatefai.it

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