The Natural Park outside the My Dolomiti Wellness Hotel

Wild and peaceful holidays in the nature reserve Fanes-Sennes-Braies

The Natural Park Fanes-Sennes-Braies covers 25,680 hectares and is one of the biggest natural reserves of its kind. It spreads over the regions of Fanes, Fodara Vedla and Sennes and the borders reach the municipalities of Braies, Valdaora, La Valle and Badia. The landscape offers beautiful forests and splendid lakes. Because of the complex geomorphology the park is very interesting from a scientific point of view.

The opening of the national park had the aim to protect local animals and plants from extinction and to increase their numbers. This purpose has been achieved thanks to the rigorous rules that are in force in the park.

Since summer 2001 the Visitor Centre of the national park in San Vigilio is open to the public. The architecturally conspicuous building, just at the end of the village in direction of Pederü, is a remarkable museum. Typical animal species, insects, flowers, plants, minerals, archaeological findings and topics referring to local mythology are exposed there. Everything is explained through tapes and video-tapes, games and artistic performances. The entry is free.

Sensational discovery: the den-bear is an "Ursus Ladinicus"

On September 23rd 1987 the hotel owner and mountain guide Willi Costamoling, a passionate collector of minerals, discovered an enormous entrance to a cave while he was trekking through the Alps of Fanes. As he reached the entrance at 2800 m above sea level he decided to go in.

What he found was really amazing: hundreds, let's say thousands of big animals' skulls and bones. Scientific examinations proved that the skeletons were those of den-bears (Ursus Spelaeus) living in this area thousands of years ago. The discovery was really sensational and numerous archelogists came flocking to the cave of Conturines. Scientists of the University of Vienna tried to find out the way of life of these bears, which were not known to have lived in the Dolomites: they discovered them to have been mainly herbivorous.

These 120,000 years old findings prove that the desert stone fields of the Dolomites were once a fertile area. Further studies proved that the discovered den-bears belonged to a yet unknown species. According to this and to the scientific custom that the discoverer can decide about the name of his discovery, the name of "Ursus Ladinicus" was chosen on the basis of the place of discovery, inhabited by the Ladins, the retoromance population of the Dolomites. Some of the findings are exposed in the visitors centre of the national park in San Vigilio and in the museum of Ladin culture "Museo Ladin" in San Cassiano.