Savogno is located along an important communication route that brings the upper Rhine valleys directly into contact with Valchiavenna. Already in the Middle Ages it was a transit point for those going to Chur, capital of the Three Gray Leagues.
The town was inhabited until the 1960s as an important transit point towards the Val di Lei, but with the progressive exodus towards the towns of the valley, it became almost uninhabited. Of the 400 original inhabitants, the last one abandoned the town in 1968. Currently, in addition to the managers of the refuge, only a few families return from time to time to their original home.
To reach Savogno there is no road, but a long staircase that climbs between the chestnut trees on the rugged side of the mountain. You go up for about ten minutes, always staying in the woods, in sight of the stream. A mule track then deviates towards the east and leads to a large, steeply sloping deforested space where minute vine terraces and meadows invaded by brambles surround numerous huts, partly built of wood. Traces of previous intensive agricultural use become increasingly evident as you climb the steep slope above the houses.