Grossular - Italy

Grossular var. Hessonite

Locality: Fontana del Preive, Ala di Stura, Metropolitan City of Turin, Piedmont, Italy

Dimensions: 19*8*8mm/1.4g

A trace of alpine sunset, held in pale rodingite.

This specimen comes from Fontana del Preive — the "Priest's Spring" — in Italy's Val d'Ala, its red-orange Hessonite crystals glassy and vivid against pale diopside and deep clinochlore. Each piece carries the memory of ancient oceanic crust reshaped by the Alps.

What makes the garnet from Piemonte, Italy

Val d'Ala in Italy's Piemonte region is one of the Alps' best-known garnet localities. Most of the garnet found here is Hessonite, a red-orange variety of Grossular, growing within a distinctive rock called rodingite — formed during the serpentinization of mantle peridotite, and a geological witness to the shifting of ancient oceanic crust and the rise of the Alps. This is why specimens from the area are so often paired with diopside, epidote, vesuvianite, and other calcium silicates, producing their signature layered color. Fontana del Preive, the "Priest's Spring," is one of Val d'Ala's most notable localities — some specimens here even display rare pagoda-like or elongated crystal habits, a trait especially prized by collectors.

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