Monte Pizzocco
Paradisia liliastrum
“L’Om Selvàrech”
Chair maker at work
in being of great help in the elaboration of instruments for
planning (Park Plan and SIC-ZPS Management Plan).
As concerns vertebrates, besides simple qualitative research (in order to find out what species there exist), quantitative research has been carried out (in order to find out how
many animals are present in the Park), with censuses repeated through the years concerning fish, ungulates (chamois, deer and mouflons), capercaillies, mountain grouse,
Greek partridges, snow-grouse and golden eagles.
Among the most recent work done is the reintroduction of
the marmot, the new atlas of nesting birds, which required
three years of field research, studies on grasshoppers and
on bats. Important research has also been carried out on
invertebrate fauna, in particular on terrestrial and fresh water molluscs (of which 134 species have been reported); on
day butterflies (which are present with 96 species, i.e. 40%
of those present in Italy) and night butterflies (present with
435 species). Of great interest is the research on the subterranean fauna with the discovery of 5 new species living in the
karstic complex of Piani Eterni. A lot of research has been
focused on mapping the habitats existing within the Park.
This research is important for territory management planning from a naturalistic point of view.
In order to promote the protected
area and the contiguous territories as a whole, the project “Carta
Qualità” (Quality Card) was created, which awards the Park logo
to services and products guaranteeing high quality standards and
respect of the environment. Protocols have been worked out for each productive sector, setting the quality and environment protection requisites which
the economic activity must observe in order to be able to
bear the Park brand and be mentioned in the “Carta Qualità”. The products and services inserted in the circuit can
take benefit from the promotion activities carried out by the
Park at local and national levels. The single businessman is
constantly updated on Park activities, takes part in periodic
verification and project sharing meetings, joins by observing
environmental and cultural targets proper to the “mission”
of the Park and of the “People of the Park”.
Currently the circuit joiners are more than 250, and make up
what in Italy is the biggest socio-economic promoting com-
munity operating with
a protected area.
The products of “Carta
Qualità” are obtained
by traditional and/or
organic methods, and
are a perfect synthesis of the binomial
man-nature. They are
foods boasting a long
productive
tradition
and creating unique
flavours from the environmental peculiarities of these mountains. “Carta Qualità” also
promotes
modern food and agricultural businesses
on the territory, as far
as they operate in consistency with the “mission” of the Park.
Mountain dairy cheese
Photovoltaic roof at Candàten
DOLOMITI BELLUNESI NATIONAL PARK
Piazzale Zancanaro, 1 - 32032 Feltre (BL)
T 0439 3328 - F 0439 332999
[email protected] - www.dolomitipark.it
Managing authority:
Regione del Veneto – Direzione Piani e
Programmi del Settore Primario
Body responsible for the information:
Parco Nazionale Dolomiti Bellunesi
International cooperation by the Park was at first addressed
to Latin American countries, characterized by historic emigration by people from Veneto and Belluno. With time activities have increased, involving the Balkan area too. The
project “from the Dolomites to the Andes” is a fund raising
campaign in favour of the Chile Park of Omora and the Argentinian Park of Nahuel Huapi (whose main city centre,
Bariloche, was founded by Bellunese people).
The Durmitor project, co-funded by the Veneto Region and also
involving UNESCO, pursues the aim of institutionally strengthening the Montenegrin Park and promoting sustainable socioeconomic activities, with the collaboration of local partners.
Some experiences of socio-economic promotion carried out
by the Park, in particular the project “Carta Qualità” (Quality Card), have been the object of international exchanges of
experiences with parks of the National Park Service of the
United States of America. The positive experience of the
Park has given a decisive contribution to the assignment of
the Dolomites as a Human Heritage by Unesco.
Marmots
The Park has managed to integrate the safeguard and conservation of a protected area with socio-economic development plans oriented towards environment sustainability and
of great scientific and cultural value.
The Park is the first protected area in Europe which has obtained the ISO 9001-14001 and Emas certifications, and that
has contributed to the Emas certification of 5 of the 15 townships of the territory. It has also received the Emas certificate
for vast areas, for the first time in Italy, for the whole territory
of the “Park Community” too. For this activity, the Ag-Emas
project has been reported by the European Union as one of
the best European projects, with a special mention in 2009.
The Park has carried out a
general plan of installation
of solar panels, by creating over twenty five power
plants utilizing renewable
energy sources, tailored on
the basis of the location and
specificity of the buildings.
All refuges, Alpine dairies, bivouacs, Park tourist facilities and surveillance bases
have been provided with solar plants. The realization of the
Fossil Free project has involved other administrative bodies
too. The CAI (Italian Alpine Club) has actively collaborated
in the installation of solar panels in the Park refuges. This
project has received several awards at national and international levels and, on initiative of the Ministry for economic
development, has been “exported” to the National Park of
the Pollino.
Valle Imperina. Inside the melting furnaces
CARTA QUALITÀ
The Project “from the Dolomites to the Andes”
AGRE VOLUNTEERS’ CENTRE
Val Cordevole - Sedico
PIAN D’AVENA REFRESHMENT AREA
Pian d’Avena - Pedavena
PIAN FALCINA CAMPER - REFRESHMENT AREA
Valle del Mis - Sospirolo
CROCE D’AUNE INFORMATION POINT
Croce d’Aune - Sovramonte
Chamois
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
PROJECTS
GOOD IDEAS
FOSSIL FREE
Initiative funded by the Rural
Development Programme
2007-2013 for the Veneto, Axis 4 - Leader
CANDÀTEN CAMPER - REFRESHMENT AREA
Loc. Candàten - Val Cordevole - Sedico
LA SANTINA
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTRE
Val Canzoi - Cesiomaggiore
CAMPANULA MORETTIANA
BOTANICAL GARDEN
Loc. Val Brenton - Sospirolo
IL SASSO NELLO STAGNO VISITORS CENTRE
Piazza 1° Novembre, 1 - Pedavena
UOMINI DI VALLE IMPERINA VISITORS CENTRE
MINING CENTRE OF VALLE IMPERINA
Rivamonte Agordino
The Bellunese Dolomites are
beautiful mountains, with a
large range of habitats enabling
many animal species to find
suitable conditions for living and
reproducing. Among the mammals present, the most significant species are the ungulates:
chamois, roebucks, deer and
mouflons. The Park has successfully reintroduced the marmot, at the same time of the first presence of the bearded
vulture being reported. Practically all other species of the
Alpine fauna are present: mountain hares, foxes, badgers,
stoats, weasels, pine martens, stone martens, squirrels,
dormice and hedgehogs. More and more frequently the
lynx and bear have been spotted, since these animals have
started to enter the territory of the Park. The bird fauna is
rich and diversified, even thanks to the variety of ecosystems in the Bellunese Dolomites. Well represented are both
day and night raptors. Important are also the populations of
capercaillies, black grouse, mountain francolins, and snowgrouse. Forest habitats are enriched by the presence of the
great black woodpecker.
The herpetic fauna is well represented, despite the relative
scarcity of damp habitats in the Park. Together with frogs
and tritons, the uncommon black salamander must be
mentioned.
One of the main livelihood activities of the populations that
inhabited this territory, up to the years after the Second
World War, was cow and sheep breeding. The Park has given
great importance to upgrading the mountain economy and
improving the shepherds’ life conditions: restoring the Alpine
dairies, supplying power plants from renewable sources,
creating innovative plants for milk transformation directly on
the spot, are only a few of the activities undertaken to give
dignity back to the life and economy of the Alpine dairies.
Sass de Mura
PIERO ROSSI CULTURAL CENTRE
Piazza Piloni - Belluno
The Bellunese Dolomites are
mountains rich in beautiful flora,
with some rare species or of high
phytogeographical value. The Park
flora comprises approximately
1.400 species (almost a fourth of the
Italian flora). Many are rare, such as
the Campanula Morettiana, which
has become the symbol of the Park. Besides, there is the extremely recent and exclusive Alchemilla lasenii (dedicated to
its discoverer, the first President of the Park, Cesare Lasen).
Woods have always been one of the most fluctuating elements of the landscape, the first to be cut down in order to
obtain new pastures or cultivable lands, get wood for fire,
and in order to stoke the melting furnaces of the mines, when
demographic pressure or unfavourable economic conditions
became heavier. Wood vegetation has undergone selection
by giving space to more useful or profitable species. In the
Park the vegetation is characterized by different altitude
belts: the mid-European belt, with broad-leaved tree woods,
with hornbeams and oaks; the sub-Atlantic belt with extensive beech woods, sometimes mixed with conifers; the boreal belt with conifers, especially spruces. At high altitudes
Campanula morettiana
Monte Fornèl
The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas
DAIRIES
FEASR
REGIONE DELVENETO
THE TERRITORY
The territory included in the Park
comprises mountain environments
of high and medium altitude. It is located between the Cismon Valley to
the West and the Piave Valley to the
East; with offshoots North towards
the Maè Basin (Val Prampèr) and
the lower Agordino. The mountain
groups involved are the Alpi Feltrine (Vette, Cimónega, Pizzocco-Brendòl-Agnelézze), the Pizzón-Ferúch-Monti del Sole
group (between the Mis and Cordevole Valleys), the SchiaraPelf group and Mount Talvéna, in the North-Eastern sector.
The main peaks are: Mount Schiàra, 2.565 m, Mount Sass de
Mura, 2.550 m, Mount Talvéna, 2.542 m, Mount Pavióne, 2.335
m, Mount Pizzón, 2.240 m. The main streams: Stién, Caoràme,
Vesés, Falcìna, Mis, Imperìna, Cordévole, Vescovà, Ardo, Prampèra. These mountains have always been a part of the history
and culture of the residing populations. Myths and legends,
hard work and emigration are one and only with the harsh
THE FLORA
Since June 26th 2009, all the protected areas of the Dolomites, the Dolomite Sites of Community Importance and the
Special Protection Areas in the provinces of Belluno, Bolzano, Trento, Pordenone and Udine have been included in
the UNESCO World Heritage list: a great acknowledgement
of the work done in the attentive conservation of very beautiful but also very fragile environments.
THE FAUNA
The history of the Bellunese Dolomites is long and complex. It started in warm tropical seas more than
two hundred million years ago and
was successively featured by key
events which have brought about
a unique geological variety, with
high altitude karstic-nival environments, which have been modelled by glaciers and subsequently by snow and karstic activity. Today inside the Park
we can admire large meadow dells, wide and deep valleys,
vast and solar mountain walls, but also sombre narrow
gorges, cliffs hanging over dark ravines, high solitary gorges, tormented plateaus where the karstic nature of the rocks
has allowed a subterranean landscape to develop made of
potholes, cracks, halls, tunnels, and abysses penetrating
into the bowels of the earth.
The karstic complex of Piani Eterni, with its over 30 Km of
tunnels, is the largest of the Dolomites, and one of the most
extensive caves in the Veneto Region and in Italy.
In the Bellunese mountains there are numerous ore bodies.
The most interesting one is the former mining complex of
Valle Imperina, which for at least five centuries provided the
raw material for the Veneto copper industry. Extraction of
the mineral, which began presumably in the 15th century,
continued until 1962. Really noteworthy, from an architectural point of view too, is the building hosting the old furnaces for melting the cupriferous pyrite and refining the copper.
In this site the Park has invested considerable energy and
resources, in order to make it possible for citizens and visitors to enjoy it from a cultural point of view and for tourism.
Activities producing lime by heating up lime stones of excellent quality, abundant along the pebbly riverbanks, were
also widespread. In the territory several “calchere” can still
be seen: these are small stone furnaces, which were used
until the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century.
The Cadini del Brenton
WORLD HERITAGE - UNESCO
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY
Golden eagle
The territories that are today included within the Park have
been assiduously inhabited for millenniums and preserve
precious evidence of the ancient presence of humans. Among
the most important vestiges we must remember the numerous pre-historical archaeological sites; the mining centre of
Valle Imperina, which has a history of over half a millennium;
the Chartreuse of Vedana, a building complex of exceptional
value; the chapels of the piedmont belt; the old medieval
hospices of the Val Cordevole; the “military roads”, which are
a remnant of a troubled period in European history; the Alpine dairies, and all the so-called “lesser” signs indicating
the presence of human dwellings in the mountain areas.
beech woods are replaced by mugho-pine woods. A true and
proper belt of spruce woods is almost everywhere missing.
The belt of dwarf shrubs is dominated by rhododendrons,
dwarf junipers, and, in fresh habitats, green alders and
weeping willows. The Alpine belt is characterized by primary
pastures with different types of vegetal communities: blue
moor grass, matgrass, festuce and sedges.
Malga Erera
Dolomite peaks, which here overlook the first valleys taking
to the Veneto plains. The history of the park territory is also
and above all the history of the communities that for centuries have lived there and have worked in a hostile environment,
with which they have managed to establish a delicate balance,
which is today often menaced by the global transformations of
world economy and society. These are tough mountains, steep
and covered with dense vegetation. Perhaps on account of this
they have been left more in peace than other Dolomite peaks
that have been exploited by mass tourism.
HISTORY
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
During these years the Park has
funded and supported over 150
research projects, since these are
necessary preconditions for managing the territory. A true and proper “inventory of biodiversity” has
been drawn up, which has resulted
Photovoltaic canopy at Park premises
PHOTOS: Archives PNDB, M. Minute, A. Borgo, B. Boz, F. Friz
CTA-CFS, N. Martino, G. Poloniato, E. Vettorazzo, CAI Feltre.
TEXTS: Nino Martino
GRAPHIC PROJECT: EVIDENZIA immagine&comunicazione
PRINT: Linea Grafica srl
Great black woodpecker
Fox
Products of the Park
CULTURAL CENTRE “PIERO ROSSI”
Agre is an old medieval hospice, which used to give hospitality to wayfarers, merchants, pilgrims and cavaliers coming down from Northern
Europe towards the Plains and Venice. It has been restored, and hosts
a Park Study and Research Centre, and it is the heart of our volunteering activities. If you want to merge into the wild nature of the Park and
contribute to the upkeep of the tracks by working side by side with the
Park personnel in their daily activities… Agre is the right place for you.
VALLE IMPERINA
Botanical garden “Campanula morettiana” - Sospirolo
Refuge
Environmental education centre “La Santina”
Cesiomaggiore
Hiking base, accommodation facility
Refreshment and camper area - Candàten - Sedico
Area for campers
Information point Croce d’Aune - Sovramonte
Villa Binotto - Premises of the Park Authority
Refreshment and camper area - Pian Falcina - Sospirolo
Information point
Refreshment area - Pian d’Avena - Pedavena
Station of the Forest Rangers
BOTANICAL GARDEN
“CAMPANULA MORETTIANA”
Val Prampèr
Town museum - Belluno
Val del Grisol
Archaeological area - Feltre
Cajada
Diocesan museum - Feltre
Valle dell’Ardo
Ethnographic museum - Seravella
Val di San Martino
Ethnographic museum - La Valle Agordina
Val di Lamen
REFRESHMENT
AREA
GIARDINO BOTANICO
PIAN D’AVENA
Loc. Val Brenton - Val del Mis - Sospirolo
Loc. Pian d’Avena - Pedavena - T 0439 3328
T 0439 3328 - www.dolomitipark.it
Along the road leading to the Croce d’Aune pass, there is the picnic area of Pian d’Avena, which has a refreshment and information
point.
The garden enables one to observe high altitude species, without
having to go on difficult and exhausting hikes, which are not within
the reach of all people visiting the protected area. It is subdivided
into sectors recreating the main habitats of the Park: rocks and
screes, damp areas, meadows and pastures, and woods.
The garden is completely accessible to the disabled, may be visited
by people on wheelchairs, and is provided with didactic supports for
sightless and partially sighted people.
PONENTE
NATURALISTIC ACCESSES TO THE PARK
MUSEUMS
Loc.
Candàten
REFRESHMENT AND CAMPER AREA
PIAN FALCINA
Loc. Valle del Mis - Sospirolo - T 0437 950909 - [email protected]
HOSTEL AND RESTAURANT VALLE IMPERINA
Loc. Le Miniere - Rivamonte Agordino - T 0437 62451
[email protected] - www.dolomitipark.it
7 bedrooms (37 beds), 15 bathrooms
The Imperina Hostel is an extraordinary building of industrial archaeology, which has been obtained inside the old and important
mining centre (dating back to the 15th century and still working
until 1962). In the area the mine infrastructures (today restored)
are still visible, among which roads, tunnels, stables, and the old
building with the melting furnaces, which dates back to the 16th
century. The hostel is placed at the crossroads of two thematic
routes created by the Park, “The Hospice Route” and “The Forgotten Mountain”, and has 37 beds, in rooms with 4 or 6 beds, a TV
room, a reading room, an internet room. The Restaurant menu offers dishes prepared mainly with products coming from farms that
have obtained the Park brand Carta Qualità. Booking is welcome
for groups with more than 10 people.
REFRESHMENT AND CAMPER AREA
CANDÀTEN
Loc. Candàten - Val Cordevole - Sedico
T 0437 847508 / 950909 - www.dolomitipark.it
A large picnic area with tables and barbeque, a small bar, a shop
with local products with the brands “Carta Qualità” and “Zero Kilometres”, a camper parking area: you can find all these things together in a single place at Candàten, next to the Cordevole stream
and next to the Agordina regional road.
The recreation centre of Pian Falcina comprises a camper parking
area with facilities, a bar, an equipped picnic area, a playground for
children, and a wide area for outdoor cultural activities. The parking
area guarantees enough parking spaces for about 100 cars and a
couple of buses. The camper parking area is provided with 12 clear
spaces for campers, and toilets.
Bungalows are also being built, for a total of 24 beds. The picnic area,
on the banks of the lake, is provided with public toilets. Completing
the facilities of the area is a small amphitheatre for outdoor cultural
activities, sheltered by a tensile structure, and an athletics course.
PARK REFUGES
7
REFUGE 7° ALPINI
Loc. Pis Pilon - 32100 Belluno
T 0437 941631 - C 339 7864925
[email protected]
www.rifugiosettimoalpini.it
58 beds
8
REFUGE B. BOZ
Loc. Conca Nevetta
32030 Cesiomaggiore
T 0439 64448 - C 348 7248949
[email protected]
38 beds
PARK BIVOUACS
BRENDÒL - 1686 m. - Erèra-Brendòl
CAMPOTORÓNDO - 1763 m. - Erèra-Brendòl
LA VARETTA - 1709 m. - Talvéna
LE MANDRE - 1378 m. - Pizzón
LE PRESE - 1442 m. - Vette Feltrine
MALGA ALVÌS - 1573 m. - Cimónega
MONSAMPIÀN - 1902 m. - Vette Feltrine
RAMÉZZA ALTA - 1485 m. - Vette Feltrine
TAVERNÀZZO - 1104 m. - Vette Feltrine
ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION CENTRE
LA SANTINA
Loc. La Santina - Val di Canzoi - Cesiomaggiore - T 0493 3328
In Val di Canzoi, one of the most frequented Park accesses, stands
the centre for environmental education of the Park.
The facility is provided with laboratories, scientific equipment,
a teaching room and a documentation centre.
The centre aims at being a point of reference for environmental education activities within the Bellunese Dolomites National Park.
WWW.DOLOMITIPARK.IT
PARK ITINERARIES
Thematic track “I Cadini del Brentòn”
Evortion potholes in Val del Mis
30’ - 1 km - difference in height 50 m
Thematic track “I Circhi delle Vette”
A geological - geomorphological itinerary through
the Buse delle Vette
5 h 30’ - 7 km - difference in height 400 m
Thematic track “Piedmont chapels. Warrior saints
and healer saints in the Bellunese Dolomites”
Thematic track “The Route of Hospices”
approx. 40 h - 110 km - difference in height 4.200 m (in 13 stages)
On the old traces of wayfarers in Val Cordevole
8 h - 20 km - difference in height 540 m
Thematic track “Covoli in Val di Lamen”
Nature tracks: “Val Falcina” - “Val Canzoi”
An archaeological itinerary on the footsteps of the Mazarol Man
2 h 30’ - 2,5 km - difference in height 200 m
GTP: Great Park Crossing
Thematic track “The forgotten mountain”
Military tracks and old miners’ roads
36 h 30’ - 39 km - difference in height 2.250 m (in 6 stages)
TRAMONTANA
Bivouac
LEVANTE
The Walk through the Dolomites
9
REFUGE PIAN DE FONTANA
Loc. Pian de Fontana - 32013 Longarone
C 335 6096819
[email protected]
www.goldnet.it/piandefontana
26 beds
10
REFUGE
SOMMARIVA AL PRAMPERÉT
Loc. Prà della Vedova - 32013 Longarone
C 337 528403
30 beds
11
REFUGE F. BIANCHET
Loc. Pian dei Gat - 32036 Sedico
T 0437 669226 - C 333 8668891
[email protected]
40 beds
12
REFUGE G. DAL PIAZ
Loc. Cesta - Passo Vette Grandi
32030 Sovramonte
T 0439 9065 - C 348 2208808
[email protected]
www.rifugiodalpiaz.it
26 beds
CO
OC
IR
SC
AGRE HOSPICE
Loc. Agre - Val Cordevole - Sedico
T 0439 3328 - [email protected] - www.dolomitipark.it
Regional boundaries
Visitors’ centre “Il Sasso nello Stagno” - Pedavena
Volunteers’ centre - Agre - Sedico
In Val Canzói, in the heart of the Park, at the start of the tracks
leading to two of the most extraordinary places in the Bellunese Dolomites, the Erèra plateau and the Cimónega dell, there is a lodge
called “Al Fràssen”. An old rural house, bought and restored by the
Park, has become a cosy lodge with 22 beds, toilets, a completely
equipped kitchen, a large dining room with a fireplace, and a teaching room. At a very short distance from lake de La Stua, it is the ideal
place for animal-watching, environmental education, school camps
and as the starting point for excursions to Piani Eterni.
It is possible to book a single bed, a room, or the entire facility.
Lunch and a shuttle service are available by prior booking.
VOLUNTEERS’ CENTRE
Park boundaries
Old Mining centre of Valle Imperina - Rivamonte Agordino
GR
EC
AL
E
Loc. Fràssen - Val Canzói - Cesiomaggiore
T 0439 42723 - C 329 0040808
[email protected] - www.dolomitipark.it
3 bedrooms (5+5+12 beds), 5 bathrooms
Cultural centre “Piero Rossi” - Belluno
LE
RA
ST
AE
M
“AL FRÀSSEN” HOUSE
This Park facility, located in the former Fire Brigade barracks, has
not by chance been called a “cultural centre” and not a “visitors’
centre”, because it has the aim of becoming a centre for cultural
aggregation open to all citizens.
Here it is possible not only to get information about the Park or to
buy books and other publications on the protected area, but also to
stop by and drink a glass of wine together with friends. The Centre, dedicated to one of the father founders of the Park, is also a
bar and a shop with products with the Park brand “Carta Qualità”,
where events such as concerts, art exhibitions and book presentations are organized.
VISITORS CENTRES - INFO POINTS - REFRESHMENT AREAS
OSTRO
Piazza Piloni - Belluno - T 0437 27030
[email protected] - www.dolomitipark.it
KEY TO SYMBOLS
LI
BE
CC
IO
PARK LODGE