Hunters, peasants and businessmen
The perpetual dance of humankind, all around the Dolomites
Val Badia candidly recounts its history, you only need to know how to read it. There is the cave beneath the Conturines massif which houses the bones of a bear that lived here between sixty and forty thousand years ago. There are the archaeological remains dating back to the Stone Age and which are preserved in the Ladin Museum in Ciastel de Tor. Behold the traces of Rhaetians and Romans, the viles, rural settlements testifying to the life of peasants. And then there is the Benedictine monastery of Badia, bestowing its name to the entire valley. And Monsieur Dolomieu, baptising the Dolomites. There also is no lack of tragedies, mostly related to World War I. Eventually, there are those who left the barn to invent the lift facilities. Bëgnodüs modern days.
“Les viles”, rural communities right beneath the Dolomites
Live and share: this is the core principle of the "viles", rural settlements spread throughout Val Badia at an altitude between 1,200 and 1,700 metres. Unlike the typical farmsteads of South Tyrol, the viles are closely connected houses with stables. Testimony to this is the presence of small and frequently communal service facilities, such as: ovens, granaries, grain dryers, woodsheds, water troughs as well as small interconnecting village squares. The terrain surrounding the viles is parcelled up and fairly divided, with collectively owned agricultural land. Les viles, a community of hippies long before the era of flower-power.
Alta Badia, a landscape of ancient stories and traditions
Chapels, tabernacles, crucifixes: the territory of Alta Badia is filled with symbols and testimonies recounting its origins, history, customs and traditions. Almost as if its inhabitants felt the need to narrate themselves by creating artefacts, some of them of considerable artistic value. Indelible footprints of life that are shining brightly to this day.
