Place to visit

Place to visit

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY OF SAN TOMASO

The centre, located in San Tomaso Agordino, was officially opened in 2004 and is managed by the Agordo Amateur Astronomers’ Association.

The centre organises evenings for the observation of celestial bodies, lessons and the chance to learn more about astronomy. It is equipped with a Planetarium that projects images offering an accurate representation of the sky and the constellations, as well as a sliding roof with a telescope.

The aim of the Amateur Astronomers’ Association is to share their passion for astronomy and stargazing with others.

For further information and to book visits to the Centre, contact:

Associazione  Astrofili Agordini
Loc. Celat,9 – San Tomaso Agordino
Phone: 0039 346 0126286
Site: www.cielidolomitici.it
Mail: info@cielidolomitici.it

GEOLOGICAL GARDEN

Located next to Falcade town hall, the Geological Garden offers a symbolic representation of the unique geological features that coexist in the Val del Biois.

Visitors to the site will find a number of dark-coloured blocks that represent the “South Tyrolean porphyry platform” located in Valle Agordina and formed by 2000 square kilometres of volcanic lava with a thickness of up to 2000 m.

The platform is the largest porphyry area in Europe, formed around 280 million years ago.

Limestone-dolomite formations are also well represented in the garden, as a distinctive aspect of the peaks and their scree: Focobon and Mulaz (Pale di San Martino), Cime d’Auta – Sas Valfreda, Formenton – La Banca – Le Crene (Marmolada Group) and the Civetta Group.

The garden invites visitors to find out more about the peculiar geological features of the Valley, as well as the extraordinarily beautiful tree species nurtured here by the substrate and the environment. The botanical garden is home to the following: silver fir (avez in the Ladin-Veneto language of the Biois Valley), mugo pine (baranc), rowan (melester), Swiss pine (zirm or zirum), larch (lares), Norway spruce (pez), ash (frasen), sycamore (aier) and beech (faghèr).

GARDEN OF MEMORY

The Garden of Memory, located in Canale d’Agordo, 300 m from Piazza Papa Luciani, is one of the most fascinating, touching places to visit, thanks to the care that has gone into collecting the stories and preserving the works in this place dedicated to the memory of the missing and the fallen during the Russian Campaign in WWII, between 1941 and 1943.

The Garden, based on an idea by Giovanni Fontanive, was created over the years also thanks to the help of many volunteers. Fontanive had never forgotten the Alpini troops he saw as a child, looking for food before their departure for the Russian steppe, and the disquiet he felt when he realised how many of them never returned home, and that some of them disappeared without trace.

It was this desire to keep the memory of these heroes alive that prompted the creation of the Garden of Memory. As visitors walk through the garden, they can see bronze plaques with the names of the divisions who fought in Russia, the names of the missing and the fallen, the prayer “Natale ’42”, a map showing the position of the Italian forces deployed, and two works that magnificently depict the tears of the mothers for their sons killed or missing in action and the suffering of the soldiers sent into battle.

In 2017, the Garden was further enriched with a painting by the Falcade artist Franco Murer, simply depicting the sadness and desolation of the few who made it back after experiencing numerous difficulties on the long, long road home.
The installations in the Garden can be freely admired by visitors.

For further information, please consult the website www.giardinodellamemoria.it