Piène Haute hamlet

The hamlet of Piène Haute has 60 inhabitants in the winter and 150 in the summer.
The ruins of the old castle testify to its age.
Its name «Piène Haute» has sparked many debates during this long history. Primitively
“Penna” and then “Penna Alta” (some translate
«Piène Haute») it has turned into «Piena» not to confuse it with another «Penna», located in Abruzzo. The name of Piène Haute was definitively retained in 1947 when it came to France.

The hamlet of Piène-Haute (600 m altitude) is relatively isolated due to its original military location (a medieval Genoese stronghold). Access by road was only created after the village became part of France.

The village overlooks the Roya on a 200m-high cliff, with a very wide view of the Mercantour peaks and the sea.
The village as a whole is spectacular, both for its linear layout and for the well-preserved homogeneity of its appearance.

The church of Saint-Marc, a Historic Monument, features Baroque Ligurian decoration from the early 18th century. The Chapel of the White Penitents (Monuments Historiques) has preserved its neo-Gothic decor from the late 19th century.

The small houses in the hamlet, like the roads, are carefully maintained and planted with flowers by the locals, who maintain a pleasant overall unity.

Château de Piène-Haute (private) is a former Genoese stronghold of medieval origin (11th-17th centuries), built on a rocky ridge at the end of the hamlet, overlooking the Roya.