Corte di Rigoso

Corte di Rigoso was founded in 2020 in Rigoso, a hamlet of the Municipality of Monchio delle Corti (PR) and the highest village in the province of Parma, at 1.131 metres above sea level, on the border between three regions: Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Liguria. The cooperative was established in the midst of the pandemic, with the goal of bringing life back to a village that in 2020 had reached a historic low of just 28 residents. It took on the lease of two buildings facing the village square, obtained licences for a bar and a tobacconist’s, and reopened the grocery shop, restoring essential services that the community had lost.
The cooperative operates in a territory of great natural and scenic value: Rigoso lies at the heart of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennine National Park, is part of the UNESCO MAB Biosphere Reserve Network and is a stopping point on the Sentiero dei Ducati, a stage of the Via dei Linari and a hub on the Alta Via dei Parchi. This territorial heritage is central to the cooperative’s vision; it has established itself as a MAB Reserve Information Point and has built partnerships with the Ducato Parks, the Municipality of Monchio delle Corti, the GAL del Ducato and Destinazione Turistica Emilia.
Corte di Rigoso’s activities include a bar, a grocery shop and a tobacconist’s, together forming the commercial and social heart of Rigoso’s village square, and a hospitality offering that welcomed around a thousand visitors in a year. The next step, supported by Opes, is the renovation of a further building to create six new en-suite rooms and two fully equipped apartments, designed to be accessible to people with disabilities, with the aim of further developing sustainable tourism in the area.
Thanks to the cooperative’s work, Rigoso’s population has grown from 28 residents in 2020 to 34 in 2025, with four young people choosing to move to the village thanks to the employment opportunities created by Corte di Rigoso. The village square has once again become a gathering point not only for the municipality’s own hamlets but also for communities in neighbouring territories, and from this renewed vitality the tourism and cultural association “Il Crinale” has been revived, led largely by young people.