Ostana
By the 1980s Ostana had five year-round residents. Its recovery made restored hamlets and living Occitan culture part of the same project.
Ostana, Piedmont, beneath Monviso. Silvia Pasquetto / Comune di Ostana, CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped for layout.
Why it is worth the drive
By the 1980s Ostana had fallen to five year-round residents; a century earlier it had reached about 1,200. The revival associated with the municipal administration that began in 1985 centred on restoring the village fabric and treating Occitan language and culture as living infrastructure.
The municipality documents stone-and-wood restoration across the hamlets, the recovery of a cultural centre in Miribrart, and a path network rebuilt with local volunteers. Its own oral-history project presents residents, Occitan, architecture, common land and tourism as parts of the same story.
Getting there
Turin (TRN). The municipality gives the distance as seventy-five kilometres. No railway reaches Ostana itself: the official public-transport routes combine a train or bus with local buses, ending at Ostana Bivio, 1.5 kilometres from the centre.
The honest part
Seventy-eight residents means limited rooms and services. Public transport requires connections and a final climb from the Bivio stop, so check current timetables; winter road conditions can make access harder.
SourcesIstat · La Stampa, copy hosted by Comune di Ostana · Comune di Ostana5
- Istat · 1 January 2026 (provisional)
Evidence note. Italy, Sourced uses the municipality-level total in Istat's provisional 2026 population dataset.
- La Stampa, copy hosted by Comune di Ostana · 10 February 2016
Evidence note. This secondary report quotes the then mayor on five year-round residents in the 1980s, about 1,200 a century earlier, and the recovery begun in 1985.
- Comune di Ostana · accessed 13 September 2026
Evidence note. The municipal page documents stone-and-wood restoration, the Miribrart cultural centre and the volunteer recovery of old paths.
- Comune di Ostana · accessed 13 September 2026
Evidence note. The municipality frames its history through residents, Occitan language, architecture, common land and tourism.
- Comune di Ostana · accessed 13 September 2026
Evidence note. The official page gives a 75-kilometre distance from Turin and public-transport combinations ending 1.5 kilometres from the centre.