The Stelvio National Park 

 

The Stelvio - Stilfserjoch National Park is located in the very heart of the Alpine arc and is considered one of the most extensive and varied protected areas in Europe.

Its surface covers 134.620 ha in the middle of the Central Alp and embraces the mountain massifs of Ortles-Cevedale and their valleys.

Stelvio National Park has immediate borders with the Swiss National Park in the north, the Adamello-Brenta Natural Park in Trentino and the Adamello Regional Park in Lombardy. Only a few miles to the east, on South Tyrolean territory, there ist the Texelgruppe-Nature Reserve, and to the west the region of Lombardy is planning to create the Livigno and Valdidentro Nature Reserve in the near future.

The idea of protecting this unique piece of alpine environment goes back right to the beginning of the past century and was translated into law with a legal Act of 24th April 1935. Initially the National Park covered a surface of 96.000 ha, but in 1977 it was considerably enlarged by the inclusion ot the upper reaches of the Adda and Oglio river valleys and the Serottini mountain chain.

Within Stelvio National Park you may admire all existing feature of typical alpine formations: majestic glacier peaks, with King Ortles being the highest elevation in the park, down their foothills to high summer pastures and the rolling meadows to the valleyfloors as well as extensiv forests. There are high alpine farmsteads, inhabited the whole year round, and different with their typical activities.

High up within the glacier regions we ma even find traces and monuments recalling battles of First World War. Interestingly enough, architectural features and patterns sometimes vary significantly from one valley the the other, expressions of migrating peoples and traditions of different origins.