Other UNESCO designated sites within the Reserve
Within the Ticino Val Grande Biosphere Reserve other major UNESCO designated sites can be listed.
Sacri Monti of of Piedmont and Lombardy
- Sacro Monte della S.S. Trinità di Ghiffa
- Sacro Monte Calvario of Domodossola
- Sacro Monte d'Orta
- Sacro Monte di Varese
The "Sacri Monti" or "Sacred Mountains of Piedmont and Lombardy" are a site consisting of a series of nine distinct complexes located in the mountains of northern Italy, four of which are included in the MAB Reserve (Varese, Orta, Ghiffa, Domodossola). Each complex encloses a series of chapels and other architectural elements, created in the 16th and 17th centuries and dedicated to different aspects of the Christian faith. Besides their symbolic spiritual significance, they are of great beauty due to the way they have been integrated into the surrounding natural landscape of hills, forests and lakes. They also house a very important artistic heritage represented by frescoes and statues.
Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps
- Isolino Virginia - Camilla - Island of San Biagio (Biandronno - VA)
- Lagozza (Besnate - VA)
- The Sabbione or Settentrionale (Cadrezzate - VA)
- Mercurago (Arona - NO)
They include remains of prehistoric settlements around the Alps, built in the period 5000-500 B.C. along the banks of lakes, rivers or wetlands.
The UNESCO NETWORK site called "Sesia-Val Grande Geopark", a world geopark
This site includes the Val Grande, whose geographical location coincides, from a geological point of view, with the so-called Massiccio dei laghi, a geostructural area of great importance for the Alpine orogenesis and for the implications of geostructural lineaments in the park that present important geotopes of international interest, which in 2013 granted it the official recognition, together with the territories of Valsesia, Val Cannobina and Val Strona, of "Sesia-Val Grande Geopark" in the November 2015 UNESCO Global Geopark Network.