Location: Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions Map
Area: 239 sq mi (620 sq km)
Highest peak: 13,323 ft (4,601 m)
Gran Paradiso National Park is located in Aosta Valley and
Piedmont regions of North- west Italy. Gran Paradiso National
Park covers an area of 239 sq mi (620 sq km). Gran Paradiso
National Park is situated on an Italian side of the European
Alps. Its history begins in 1856 then Victor Emmanuel, first
king of unified Italy designed an area in the mountains as a
Royal Hunting Reserve for the Ibex mountain goat. Unfortunately
locals have been hunting these beautiful animals to near
extinction since its body parts were considered magical
talismans against all problems in life. Another Italian king
Victor Emmanuel III continued the work of his grandfather by
expanding the area and establishing first Gran Paradiso National
Park in the history of Italy. Currently there are about 4,000
ibex in the area of the Gran Paradiso National Park.
Gran Paradiso or Grand Paradiso park is easily accessible from
Italy, France and Switzerland. There are hotels and restaurants
just outside of the park boundaries. The best time to visit Gran
Paradiso is from April to October. Families and casual visitors
prefer the northern park of the park because of its high
mountains, spectacular views and large number of accessible
paths as well as places for picnics. If you prefer more rugged
tourism and climbing then south part of the national park will
suit you better. Campgrounds, shelters and mountain huts are
spread all over the area and can be open year round. The park
has a web of hiking trails of variable difficulty. Although high
tourist concentration in some areas have cause garbage piles and
noise pollution that scares all animals away. Gran Paradiso also
attracts skiers and snowboarders in winter.
The history of the Gran Paradiso National Park is
closely linked to the safeguarding of its symbolic animal: the ibex
(Capra ibex). This ungulate, once widespread at high altitudes, beyond
the treeline, throughout the Alps has been the object of indiscriminate
hunting for centuries. The reasons why the ibex was such a coveted prey
by hunters were the most varied, including the succulence of its meat.
In the early years of the 19th century, a woman from
Gressoney-Saint-Jean, surname Zumstein, discovered that a colony of
about one hundred specimens survived in the valleys that descend from
the Gran Paradiso massif.
On 21 September 1821, the King of
Sardinia, Carlo Felice, issued the royal patents with which he ordered:
"The hunting of ibex is prohibited from now on in any part of the reigns
he dominates". This decree, which saved the ibex from extinction, was
not inspired by values of environmental protectionism, not contemplated
in the mentality of the time, but by mere hunting speculations. The
rarity of these specimens made hunting them a luxury that the sovereign
granted only to himself.
In 1850, the young King Vittorio
Emanuele II, intrigued by the stories of his brother Fernando, who had
been hunting during a visit to the mines of Cogne, wanted to travel the
Aosta Valley in person. He set off from the Champorcher valley, crossed
the Fenêtre de Champorcher on horseback and reached Cogne; along this
route, he killed six chamois and one ibex. The king was struck by the
abundance of fauna and decided to establish a royal hunting reserve in
those valleys.
It took a few years for the officials of the House
of Savoy to be able to stipulate hundreds of contracts with which the
valley dwellers and the municipalities ceded to the sovereign the
exclusive use of the hunting rights relating to chamois and bird
hunting, since ibex hunting was forbidden to the valley dwellers for
thirty years already, and in some cases even fishing and grazing rights.
The mountaineers could no longer bring sheep, cattle and goats to the
high-altitude pastures, which were reserved for game.
The Gran
Paradiso Royal Hunting Reserve was officially born in 1856, the
territory of which was larger than the current national park; in fact,
it also included some municipalities in the Aosta Valley (Champorcher,
Champdepraz, Fénis, Valgrisenche and Brissogne) which were not
subsequently included within the boundaries of the protected area. The
valley dwellers, after the first bad moods, willingly gave up their
rights to the sovereign, understanding that the presence of the
sovereigns in those valleys would bring prosperity to the local
population. King Vittorio promised that he would "trot the money along
the paths of the Gran Paradiso".
A supervisory body made up of
about fifty employees called Reali Cacciatori Guardie was set up,
churches, embankments and municipal houses were restored, huts were
built for park rangers and larger hunting lodges using local labour.
However, the most important work that changed the face of the Valle
d'Aosta and Canavese valleys was the dense network of paved mule tracks
built to connect the villages with the hunting lodges, covering a
distance of over 300 km. These roads were designed to allow the king and
his retinue to move comfortably on horseback within the reserve. Most of
them are still passable today. They overcome steep slopes with
countless, very wide hairpin bends always maintaining a slight and
constant slope. Most of them wind over two thousand meters and in some
cases exceed three thousand (Col du Loson 3296m and Colle della Porta
3002m). The most inaccessible points were overcome by digging the route
into the rock. The roadway is paved with stones, supported by dry stone
walls built with considerable skill and has a variable width from one to
one and a half meters.
The best preserved stretch is found in
Valle Orco; from Colle del Nivolet, after an initial stretch halfway up
the hill, the royal mule track crosses the hills of Terra and della
Porta, touches the Gran Piano hunting lodge (recently recovered as a
refuge) and then descends to the town of Noasca.
King Vittorio usually went to the Gran Paradiso
reserve in the month of August and stayed there for two to four weeks.
The newspapers and publications of the time were exalted by the
good-natured character of the king, who conversed and discussed with
great affability, in the Piedmontese language, with the local population
and described him as a bold knight and an infallible rifle. In reality,
the hunting campaigns were organized so that the king could target the
prey while waiting comfortably in one of the lookout posts built along
the paths.
The king's retinue was made up of about 250 men, hired
among the inhabitants of the valleys, who performed the duties of
beaters and bearers. For the latter, the hunt already began in the
night. They went to places frequented by game, formed a huge circle
around the animals and then with shouts and shots scared them so as to
push them towards the hollow where the king was waiting behind a
semicircular lookout of stones. Only the sovereign could shoot
ungulates; behind him stood the "grand veneur" who had the order to give
the coup de grace to wounded specimens or those that escaped the king's
fire. The object of the hunt was the adult male ibex and chamois.
Several dozen were shot down a day. The decision to spare females and
puppies favored the increase in the number of ungulates and the real
hunts became more abundant year after year.
The day after the
hunt, the king and his retinue moved on to the next hunting lodge.
Sunday was a rest for the beaters and, from the villages, some priests
would come up to celebrate mass in the open air. The route most traveled
by the king during his tours of the Gran Paradiso was the following: he
started from Champorcher, crossed the Fenêtre de Champorcher (2828 m),
descended to Cogne, reached Valsavarenche passing through Col du Loson
(3296 m), climbed to Colle del Nivolet (2612 m) and from here it entered
the Canavese area passing above Ceresole Reale and then descending to
the town of Noasca (1058 m) along the Ciamosseretto valley (as the name
suggests, very rich in chamois). The most used hunting lodges were those
of Dondena (2186 m), of Lauson (2584 m, today Vittorio Sella refuge), of
Orvieille and of the Gran Piano di Noasca (also the latter recently
recovered as a refuge).
Even the successors of King Vittorio,
Umberto I and Vittorio Emanuele III, undertook long hunting campaigns in
the reserve. The last royal hunt took place in 1913. Vittorio Emanuele
III, more cultured and less friendly with the villagers than his
grandfather, changed his mind and decided, in 1919, to cede the
territories of the Gran Paradiso he owned to the State with the relative
rights, indicating as a condition that the idea of establishing a
national park for the protection of alpine flora and fauna was taken
into consideration.
On 3 December 1922, King Vittorio Emanuele III, in the
early days of Mussolini's government, signed the decree law establishing
the Gran Paradiso National Park. Article 1 of the decree establishes
that the purpose of the park is to "preserve the fauna and flora and to
preserve the special geological formations, as well as the beauty of the
landscape". Article 4 establishes that the management is entrusted to
the Royal Commission of the Gran Paradiso National Park. A series of
rules follow: hunting and fishing are prohibited within the perimeter of
the park, access with dogs, weapons and devices that serve these
purposes, the Commission can suspend and regulate grazing in some
localities. The surveillance service was entrusted to the Royal Forestry
Corps which reinstated all the rangers of the old reserve who requested
it. Then came the dark years of the park.
In 1933 the Royal
Commission was abolished by royal decree and the management of the park
passed to the (fascist) Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
Surveillance, entrusted to the National Forestry Militia, became a sort
of punitive service: criminals or political antagonists, often not
accustomed to the harshness of the mountains, were sent to atone for
their punishments (a sort of Italian "little Siberia"). Vigilance lost
its effectiveness, poaching resumed and at times park rangers were even
ordered to kill specimens of ibex and chamois of the best species as a
gift to the military authorities. During the war, given the absolute
scarcity of food, poaching became necessary for the local population as
well, in order to survive.
When peace returned, the ibexes were
reduced to just 400 heads. On 5 August 1947, with a legislative decree
of the provisional Head of State Enrico De Nicola, the Gran Paradiso
National Park Authority was established with a board of directors made
up of 13 elements and a corps of security guards directly reporting to
it. He was appointed superintendent director (he will be until 1969)
prof. Renzo Videsott who the following year, in 1948, established the
first Italian environmental association, the National Pro Natura
Federation, in the castle of Sarre. Thus ended the long journey, which
lasted almost thirty years, from the hunting reserve to the national
park.
In the 2000s, the National Park was also recognized as a
site of community interest (SIC/SPA code: IT1201000) and was part of the
"Gran Paradiso" Important Bird Area (IBA code: IT008). In 2006 it was
awarded the European Diploma of Protected Areas, renewed in 2012
together with the Vanoise National Park.
In 2007, the Governing
Council of the Park Authority, with resolution no. 16 of 27 July 2007,
established a modification of the boundaries of the park, notifying the
Ministry of the Environment and for the Protection of the Territory and
the Sea on 30 October 2007. By Decree of the President of the Republic
of 27 May 2009, published in the Official Gazette no. 235 of 9 October
2009, the park was therefore rebounded, with a reduction of the overall
total area equal to 0.07 percent of the territory. However, the
President of the Republic considered the intervention positive because
the selection of the peripheral areas to be included in the park was
made on the basis of their naturalistic value, for example highly
anthropised areas were sold and more natural areas were included, while
for the new perimeter of the park, priority was given to the presence of
natural boundaries to allow for a more rational management of the
territory:
«In fact, anthropised areas have been sold, for
example villages, obtaining in exchange areas of great naturalistic
value (the wood, the peat bogs and the wetlands of the Dres valley in
Ceresole, the larch woods with broad-leaved trees of Chevrère-Buillet of
Introd, the of larch with stone pine and the heaths of the Vallone
dell'Urtier in Cogne, the spruce forest of Sysoret, ideal habitat for
Linnaea borealis in Aymavilles) or of significant landscape and cultural
value (the secular chestnut groves of Noasca and Locana).
In 2014
the Gran Paradiso became part of the world Green List of protected
areas, established by the Council of Europe. Gran Paradiso is the only
Italian park to have obtained this recognition. This is reconfirmed in
2017 and 2021.
The Gran Paradiso is the only mountain massif
culminating at over 4000 meters entirely in Italian territory. The park
is affected by five main valleys: Val di Rhêmes, Val di Cogne,
Valsavarenche, Valle dell'Orco and Val Soana; in particular, the borders
are approximately delimited by Val di Cogne to the north, Val di Rhêmes
to the west, Valle Orco to the south and Val Soana to the east. The band
that goes from 3 to 4000 m is cloaked in 59 white glaciers, more
extensive on the Aosta Valley side, of which at least 29 are constantly
monitored by the rangers. These are perennial but relatively recent
glaciers having formed during the "little glaciation" of the 17th
century.
From the highest peak (4061m) starts the ridge that
divides Cogne from Valsavarenche which, descending towards Aosta, rears
up into the two peaks of Herbétet (3778m) and Grivola (3969m). On the
Piedmont side, the Ciarforon (3642 m), the Tresenta (3609 m), the Becca
di Monciair (3544 m) stand out against the sky. These mountains are
easily identifiable, by an expert eye, even from the Turin plain.
Ciarforon is one of the most unusual peaks in the Alps: on the Aosta
side it is covered by an enormous ice cap; from Piedmont, its south wall
falls almost vertically onto the valley below and the nearby Noaschetta
Glacier.
The Torre del Gran San Pietro (3692m) and the Becchi
della Tribolazione (about 3360m) are located in the upper Piantonetto
valley; the privileged observation point is the Pontese refuge at Pian
delle Muande in Teleccio. From Punta di Galisia (3346 m), a mountain on
whose summit the borders of Piedmont, Valle d'Aosta and France meet, a
ridge detaches in a south-easterly direction made up of jagged and
pointed peaks which culminate in the imposing rocky bastion delle tre
Levanne (about 3600 m): these are the jagged and glittering peaks that
inspired the ode "Piemonte" to the poet Giosuè Carducci who had the
opportunity to come to these parts in 1890 while he was presiding over
his high school exams in Cuorgnè.
Granta Parey (3387 m) is the
symbolic mountain of the Val di Rhêmes: it marks the westernmost point
of the park. The peaks in the eastern sector of the park are lower;
among them the Punta Lavina (3308 m) and the Rosa dei Banchi (3164 m)
stand out. The latter is very popular with hikers due to the aerial
panorama it offers towards the Soana Valley and the Champorcher Valley.
The peaks of the national park are obviously part of the Graian Alps.
The geomorphology of the area was modeled by the expansion of the glaciers, which covered the whole area during the Quaternary glaciations, and typical aspects of the periglacial environment are still visible today in the areas surrounding the glaciers. In the valley of Ceresole Reale there are potholes of the giants [16]. The perennial snow line is located at about 3000 meters above sea level. In Valle Soana, in Piata di Lazin, there are the characteristic "stone circles" (patterned groud) shaped by frost.
Valle d'Aosta:
Cogne Valley (orographic left side):
Cogne, Aymavilles
Valsavarenche (both sides): Valsavarenche, Introd,
Villeneuve
Val di Rhêmes (orographic right side): Rhêmes-Notre-Dame,
Rhêmes-Saint-Georges
Piedmont (Province of Turin):
Valle
dell'Orco (left side + right side up to eastern Levanna): Ceresole
Reale, Noasca, Locana, Ribordone (only the upper part of the valley)
Val Soana (valleys of Forzo, Campiglia and right sector of the valley of
Piamprato): Valprato Soana, Ronco Canavese
The largest and most evocative lakes in the park are
located in the area surrounding Colle del Nivolet. From the two lakes of
Nivolet, in front of the Savoia refuge in the plateau of the same name,
the Savara stream originates which, after flowing through the valley to
which it gives its name (Valsavarenche), flows into the Dora Baltea near
Aosta. After passing the grassy step above the refuge, we enter the
Rosset plains where we see the most spectacular natural lakes of the
entire protected area: Lake Leità with its particular elongated shape
and Lake Rosset with its characteristic islet. The latter constitute the
source of the Orco torrent which flows towards Piedmont and flows into
the Po near Chivasso. Not far from the Rosset plains are the Lacs des
trois becs (three large and two small) and continuing a little further
the Black Lake (or Lake Leynir). The "region of the great lakes" is the
heart of the national park: from the banks of these stretches of water,
the view extends over all the main peaks of the Gran Paradiso and
Levanne.
In Val di Rhêmes we find the pleasant Lake Pellaud: it is
located inside a beautiful larch wood at a relatively low altitude (1811
m).
In Val di Cogne there are two interesting lakes: Lake Lauson
(Valnontey) and Lake Loie (2356 m, Bardoney valley).
On the straight
side of the Valle Orco, along the route of the royal mule track, just
below the Colle della Terra, we find Lake Lillet among the moraines.
Given the altitude (2765 m) this lake, except for a short summer period,
is always frozen. In its vicinity you can meet, in the right season,
herds of ibex, puppies and little goats of a few months. Lake Lillet can
also be reached by a steep path that climbs from the Mua di Ceresole
hamlet.
One of the lesser-known corners of the park is Lake Dres
(2073m). It is located on the reverse slope of the Orco Valley, almost
at the extreme southern border of the PNGP. It is one of the few points
on the Piedmont side where you can see the summit and the glacier of the
Gran Paradiso peeking out beyond the high Canavese peaks.
In the
Vallone di Forzo, in Val Soana, there is Lake Lasin (2104 m); in the
center of a wild basin it is characteristic for the large island that
occupies the north-eastern part of the body of water.
It is
interesting to remember that the city of Turin depends, for its
hydroelectric supply, on the Canavese towns of Ceresole Reale and
Locana. In Valle Orco there are no less than six artificial reservoirs
managed by Iride S.p.A.: three are located along the road that leads to
Colle del Nivolet (Ceresole Lake, Serrù Lake, Agnel Lake), three others
in the side valleys of the sunny side (Piantonetto, Valsoera , Eugio).
Given the steep slopes that characterize the Gran Paradiso valleys, it goes without saying that the torrents that flow through them originate numerous waterfalls along their impetuous flow that refine the harsh landscape of the park. The most spectacular are those of Lillaz, a hamlet of Cogne. Also on the Piedmont side there are some picturesque waterfalls that can be easily observed by tourists: the one above the town of Noasca or the one formed by the Nel torrent at the height of the Chiapili di sotto hamlet. Near the huts of Chiapili di sopra, the highest village of Ceresole Reale, two other thunderous waterfalls make a fine show.
As required by the framework law on protected areas,
the territory of the park is divided according to different degrees of
protection:
integral reserve,
general oriented reservations,
protection areas,
areas of economic and social promotion.
In the lower part of the park, in terms of elevation,
there are larch woods, grasslands, broad-leaved woods made up of aspen,
hazel, wild cherry, sycamore, oak, chestnut, ash, birch, rowan. The
beech woods, in a range between 800 and 1200 m, are found only on the
Piedmont side between Noasca, Campiglia and Locana. Between 1500 and
2000 m there are coniferous forests. The stone pine is widespread in Val
di Rhemês while the silver fir is found only in Val di Cogne near
Vieyes, Sylvenoire and Chevril. In all the valleys we find evergreen
spruce and larch. The latter is the only conifer in Europe that loses
its needles in winter. The larch woods are very bright and allow the
development of a thick undergrowth composed of rhododendrons,
blueberries, raspberries, wood geraniums, wild strawberries. In general,
spruce, larch and pine forests cover about 6% of the park territory.[19]
Impossible to list the endless variety of flowers that from March to
August enliven the different areas of the park with their colors. We
will limit ourselves to a few examples. The martagon lily typical of the
forest, and the St. John's lily that blossoms in the meadows, bloom in
early summer. The very poisonous aconite is found along watercourses.
Between the highest part of the woods and 2200 m there are expanses of
rhododendrons with their characteristic cyclamen-coloured bell-shaped
flowers.
Above 2500 m among the rocks saxifrage, alpine
androsace, artemisia, chickweed and ice buttercup find their habitat.
Even the edelweiss and the genepì are found at these heights but they
are very rare. Peat bogs and wetlands are colonized by cotton grass
whose white balls herald the end of summer.
The symbolic animal of the park is the ibex present in
about 2700 units (September 2011 census). The adult male can weigh from
90 to 120 kg while the horns can even reach 100 cm. The female, smaller,
has smoother horns just 30 cm long. The herds are made up of only males
or females and puppies. Elderly males live isolated. The mating season
coincides with the months of November and December; in this period the
male ibexes that have reached full sexual maturity fight each other,
piercing the silence of the valleys with the unmistakable sound of the
gorings audible even from the valley floor. The female remains fertile
for a few days. Pregnancy lasts six months. In late spring, the ibex
retires to some isolated ledge where she will give birth (May, June) to
one calf, sometimes two. The ibex has a mild and imperturbable character
and is easily observed by man.
The chamois, on the other hand, is
diffident, elegant in its leaps, fast and snappy. Of smaller dimensions
(maximum 45-50 kg), there are over 8000 specimens. Its horns, not as
imposing as those of the ibex, are thin and slightly hooked. This
ungulate is no longer in danger of extinction as the absolute lack of
natural predators has favored its numerical growth and excessive
colonization of the territory (during the winter they go down to the
valley damaging the undergrowth, cross the paved roads, reach look for
food a few meters from the houses) so as to sometimes require selective
hunting actions to reduce their number.
The park, in the past,
was not a balanced and complete ecosystem. Natural predators were
completely absent: the bear and the wolf had been extinct for centuries,
the others were persecuted in the days of the reserve. The task of the
Royal Hunters Guards was to protect the game not only from poachers but
also from animals considered harmful and the king rewarded with large
tips the killing of a lynx, a bearded vulture, a fox or an eagle. This
led to the extinction of the European lynx and the bearded vulture
around 1912-13.
Today, thanks to surveillance and conservation
activities, there are 27 pairs of golden eagles (2013 census), reaching
one of the highest densities of pairs of golden eagles in the Alps,
while the fox remains very present. About thirty years ago the
techniques for the reintroduction of the lynx were experimented.
Furthermore, the bearded vulture has also been reintroduced, which can
now number around 7 individuals. Since 2011 the Bearded Vulture has
started nesting again in the Park, although without success in the first
year. In 2012 the nesting was repeated for two pairs and was successful
in both cases, with the rearing of a young for each nest. The wolf, on
the increase in Italy, going up the Apennines, has returned to being
seen in the Park in recent years and today has 6-7 specimens, it is a
family herd of 5-6 specimens between Valsavarenche, Val di Rhêmes and
Valgrisenche and a lone wolf in Val di Cogne. In 2017, the formation of
a herd in Valsavarenche was ascertained, with six puppies.
Another very common mammal in the park is the marmot (there are about
6000 units). It lives in underground burrows with several burrows as
exit routes. It prefers grasslands and flat areas, especially in the Val
di Rhêmes and in the Valsavarenche. It is a rodent and with the first
colds it falls into a deep hibernation that lasts almost six months. Its
cry is unmistakable: a whistle that the "sentinel" marmot emits,
straightening itself vertically, when it sees a danger or an animal
foreign to its environment followed by the sudden stampede of the other
members of the herd.
Numerous species of birds are also part of
the Gran Paradiso fauna: buzzards, woodpeckers, tits, ptarmigans,
choughs, sparrowhawks, goshawks, owls, owls.
Two species of trout
swim in the lakes and streams: one native, the brown trout, the other
allochthonous, the fountain char, the latter introduced in the sixties
for tourism with the consent of some scientists of the time, and in
eradication course from high altitude lakes thanks to the "Life+
Bioaquae Project".
In 4 small alpine lakes: the lakes of Nivolet
Superiore, Trebecchi Inferiore, Trebecchi Superiore and Lillet, the
presence of a small crustacean, the Daphnia middenndorffiana, was found.
They are all lakes located at an altitude of more than 2500 m a.s.l. and
without fish fauna and this daphnia is a species that normally has as
its habitat the fresh waters of the arctic ecosystems.
Among the
reptiles we remember the common viper (Vipera aspis, typical of dry
areas, and among the amphibians the salamander Salamandra salamandra).
In the coniferous woods it sometimes happens to find piles of conifer
needles even half a meter high: they are the nests of the Formica rufa.
Of particular interest are the habitats considered
priority by the Habitats Directive: calcareous floors, Pinus uncinata
forests, low-calcareous marshes with alpine pioneer formations of
Caricion bicoloris-atrofuscae, dry grassy formations on calcareous
substratum (Festuco-Brometalia), active raised bogs, wooded bogs. In
particular, within the park there are some biotopes of particular
Community interest, proposed as Natura 2000 sites of Community interest:
Prascondù (code IT1110046)
Vallone Azaria - Barmaion - Torre
Lavina (pSIC code: IT1110059)
Vallone del Carro, Piani del Nivolet,
Col Rosset (pSIC code: IT1110060)
High altitude calcareous
environments of the Rhêmes Valley (pSIC code: IT1201010)
Parriod wood
(pSCI code: IT1201020)
Eaux Rousses, Djouan lake, Colle Entrelor
(pSIC code: IT1201030)
Walloons south of La Grivola (pSIC code:
IT1201040)
Sylvenoire forest - Arpissonet (pSIC code: IT1201050)
Gran Paradiso peak - Money (pSIC code: IT1201060)
Alpine peat bog of
Pra Suppiaz (pSIC code: IT1201070)
The visitor centers of the park are single-theme
information points (the bearded vulture, the ibex, the chamois, geology,
predators, trades) distributed throughout the territory of the various
municipalities of the park and present in each valley. They are managed
by the Park Authority, especially in the Aosta Valley they are managed
in collaboration with Fondation Grand-Paradis.
The visitor
centers are:
Homo and Ibex in Ceresole Reale
The shapes of the
landscape in Noasca
Spaciafurnel - Old and new trades in Locana
Culture and religious traditions in Ribordone
Traditions and
biodiversity in a fantastic valley in Ronco
The precious predators in
Valsavarenche in the locality of Degioz, dedicated to the lynx and its
return in the seventies and from 31 July 2011 with a new space dedicated
to the wolf
Welcome back Bearded Vulture! in Rhêmes-Notre-Dame, in
the Chanavey locality, dedicated to the bearded vulture and the park's
avifauna
Tutel-Activa Park Laboratory in Cogne, laboratory in the
Miners Village born in 2007
Water and Biodiversity in Rovenaud
(Valsavarenche)
Man and crops in Campiglia Soana
In addition
to the visitor centers there are some museum exhibitions or botanical
collections:
Old School of Maison, permanent exhibition in Noasca
The high mountain peat bogs in Ceresole Reale (closed)
Alpine garden
Paradisia in Valnontey
Ecomuseum of copper in Ronco Canavese (closed)
Numerous refuges are set up inside the park, in addition to bivouacs for mountaineers and for those who use them occasionally in compliance with the rules dictated by the CAI. Each of them has different opening and closing periods and in some the possibility of board and/or accommodation is given. Among them, the refuges that have obtained the "Quality Mark" from the Park Authority are the Guido Muzio refuge, the Massimo Mila refuge, the Le Fonti refuge, the Mario Bezzi refuge.
Full list:
Municipality of Aymavilles:
Bivouac
Mario Gontier (2,310 m a.s.l.)
Municipality of Ceresole Reale:
Guido Muzio Refuge
Massimo Mila Refuge
Guglielmo Jervis Refuge
Le Fonti Refuge
Pian della Ballotta Refuge
Municipality of Cogne:
Refuge Sogno di Berdzé al Péradzà
Vittorio Sella Refuge, at Lauson
Municipality of Locana:
Pontese refuge in Val Teleccio
Municipality of Noasca:
Noaschetta Refuge
Municipality of
Rhêmes-Notre-Dame:
Gian Federico Benevolo Refuge
Municipality of
Valgrisenche:
Chalet de l'Épée refuge (2,370 m a.s.l.)
Mario Bezzi
Hut (2,284 m a.s.l.)
Municipality of Valprato Soana:
Piamprato GTA
Stage Place
Giovanni Bausano Refuge
Municipality of Valsavarenche:
Refuge in the city of Chivasso on the Nivolet hill (2,604 m a.s.l.)
Federico Chabod Refuge (at 2,750 m a.s.l.)
Margherita di Savoia
refuge (2,534 m a.s.l.)
Vittorio Emanuele II Refuge (2,735 m a.s.l.)
Sanctuary of Prascondù, which also houses the Museum of Popular Religiousness created by the Park Authority.
The Park's food products are mainly bodeun (sausage made with pork blood and potatoes and mocetta, a chamois-based salami). The craftsmanship of leather, copper, wrought iron and mountain agricultural tools survives.
The toponym "Gran Paradiso" derives,
by assonance and via the French Grand paradis, from the Aosta Valley
patois Granta Parei, which means great wall. It is the same
etymology of the nearby Granta Parey. Another (unofficial) toponym
used locally is mont Iseran.
Features Monte
The Gran
Paradiso is the third highest peak among all those located
completely in Italian territory, it follows in order: the Corno Nero
(4321 m) and the Piramide Vincent (4215 m), all peaks included in
the Monte Rosa massif between the municipalities of Alagna Valsesia
and Gressoney-La-Trinité.
The summit of Gran Paradiso is
located entirely in the Valle d'Aosta area on the border between the
municipalities of Cogne and Valsavarenche, and therefore is the
highest peak of the only mountain massif culminating at over 4000
meters entirely in Italian territory. From the summit the summit
ridge descends towards the south which soon reaches the Roc (4026
m), an elevation included in the secondary list of 4000 of the Alps.
Several glaciers descend from the sides of the mountain: from
the western side towards the Valsavarenche descend the Gran Paradiso
Glacier and the Laveciau Glacier; the Tribolazione Glacier descends
on the eastern side towards the Val di Cogne
The first ascension was made on 4th September 1860 by John Jeremy
Cowell, W. Dundas, Michel Payot and Jean Tairraz, on the current
normal route.
Today this route is generally considered an
easy climb (difficulty F +), apart from the last 60 meters. As proof
of the relative ease of access to the summit, the priest-mountaineer
Joseph-Marie Henry in 1931 even managed to lead a donkey to the top.
Don Achille Ratti, future Pope Pius XI, conquered the summit
although burdened with the weight of a boy he carried on his
shoulders.
The ascension record of the
Gran Paradiso belongs to Nadir Maguet who on 15 July 2020 completed
the round trip from Valsavarenche in with 2h02'32 ", beating the
historic record of Ettore Champrétavy from Valle d'Aosta, skyrunning
athlete, who in 1995 reached the summit from the Pont di
Valsavarenche hamlet (1960 m) and back in just 2 hours, 21 minutes
and 36 seconds (1 hour, 43 minutes and 22 seconds one way).
The previous ascension record of the Gran Paradiso was set by
Valerio Bertoglio, park guard of Ceresole Reale with a past as an
athlete, on August 6, 1991. Bertoglio took 2 hours 32 minutes and 6
seconds from the Pont di Valsavarenche hamlet to the summit of the
Gran Paradiso and back (1 hour and 50 minutes one way).
The climbs usually start from the Federico
Chabod Refuge or the Vittorio Emanuele II Refuge. The first was
dedicated in 1966 to the great historian and mountaineer Federico
Chabod; the second is named after Vittorio Emanuele II King of
Italy, who created in 1856 the royal hunting reserve of Gran
Paradiso, today the Gran Paradiso National Park.
Normal route
from the Vittorio Emanuele II Refuge
The normal route from the
Vittorio Emanuele II Refuge initially runs north on a moraine formed
by large blocks of stone; then turn right (eastward) in a small
valley bordered by the wide lateral moraines of the glacier; then
you start to climb the Gran Paradiso Glacier with fairly regular
slopes and encountering few crevasses. Going up you meet the
characteristic Schiena d'Asino, pass near the Becca di Moncorvé hill
until you reach the final crevasse, after which the short, albeit
demanding, final ridge to the Madonnina della summit remains to be
covered.
Normal route from the Federico Chabod Refuge
The
climb from the Federico Chabod Refuge takes place first along the
moraine and then on the Laveciau Glacier. Climbing up the somewhat
crevassed glacier you reach the Schiena d'Asino and here the ascent
route joins the one coming from the Vittorio Emanuele II Refuge.
Classic route, North Face
The ascent of the north face starts
from the Federico Chabod Refuge; it takes place first along the
moraine, then on the Laveciau Glacier and finally on the north-west
face of the mountain. Shortly after the entrance to the glacier, you
leave the track of the normal route and head decisively towards the
bergschrund. After passing it, go up the wall on constant slopes,
bypassing the main serac on the left until you reach the ridge.
Follow the ridge briefly (first snowy and then rocky) until you
reach the summit.
The park organizes numerous educational and educational activities
with schools and offers the possibility of carrying out various
activities in the adventure camps and work camps at various times of the
year. In the park it is also possible to practice ski mountaineering
with the support of alpine and trekking guides. Furthermore, thanks to
the Rê.V.E. – Grand Paradis, co-financed with the ERDF fund of the
European Union, since 2012 a fleet of pedal assisted electric bicycles
has been available to cross the park, in one of the largest bike sharing
systems in Europe.
Trail for the blind
Since 1992 there has
been an equipped path for the blind in the park of about one kilometer
and with a slight slope.
Project "Walk in the Clouds"
With the
"Walking in the clouds" project, the Park promotes gentle mobility,
regulating private car traffic in the summer along the road that leads
to Colle del Nivolet and encouraging travel on foot, by bike and by
shuttle.
Gran Paradiso Quality Mark
The Gran Paradiso Quality
Mark is an identification tool that the Park institution assigns to
operators in the tourism, hotel, craft and agri-food sectors, committed
to a process of quality and sustainability to guarantee consumers that
they come from the Park area, the quality of processes and respect for
the environment.