Nature parks
Alta Valsesia Nature Park (Alagna Valsesia)
Category: Parks
It holds the record for the highest park in Europe, given that its protected area includes part of Monte Rosa with its Punta Gnifetti (4,559 meters) where, in 1893, Capanna Margherita was built. Still today, this alpine refuge represents the highest human outpost on the continent and also serves as a weather station and a research center on the effects of high altitudes on the human body. Also, the beginnings of the main valleys which define Valsesia: the Valgrande, the Val Sermenza, and the Val Mastallone are part of the park.
The ice of Monte Rosa, digging deeply into rock for millennia, brought about the characteristic formations nicknamed “Sesia’s boiler”; in order to understand the history of the ice in the area, a “glacier trail” – the only one in Italy – has been set up with illustrated boards. This trail winds about for two or three hours from the falls of Acqua Bianca to the large Bors valley, all the way to the Fun d’Ekku Alps.
Flora and fauna have the characteristics typical of an alpine area. Even the climatic traits are those of high mountains; this is the reason that the park’s structures are only fully operating in summer.
In Alta Valsesia, in the towns of Alagna, Rima, and Rimella, the Walser language is still spoken. This is the language of a people of Germanic origin who settled in the area in the 13th century and who have been able, for seven centuries, to preserve their own special language and culture from the mixture of populations in Valsesia.
Information
Area: 6,511 hectares
Altitude: 900 – 4,559 meters
Established: 1979
Environment: mountain
E-mail: parco.valsesia@reteunitaria.piemonte.it
www.parcoaltavalsesia.it
Head Office
Corso Roma, 35 - 13019 Varallo (Vc)
Tel. and Fax: +39.0163.54680
