Settimio Grasso, known as the hermit of Pocapaglia, was born in Bra in 1905.
His life was rather normal until, after going to the war of Ethiopia, he took refuge inside a cave, which he dug himself in the middle of the Cliffs of Roero, the vertiginous chasms that sink into the sand where centuries ago there was a sea.
His shelter was for years a pilgrimage destination for the Bra citizens who went there to pray to the Madonnina he placed in a niche near the entrance to the cave.
He lived alone for a long time, recommending herbal compresses and prayers to those who visited him. Then he married and even had children, but unfortunately during the second world war his misanthropy was mistaken for duplicity, so much so that some people, considering him a German spy, executed him.
