Paradisia alpine botanic garden

The Paradisia Alpine Botanical Garden is located in Valnontey, a hamlet of the municipality of Cogne, in the heart of the Park, at 1700 metres above sea level, on an area of about 10,000 square metres, rich in natural hollows and depressions that provide optimal conditions for the cultivation of mountain and alpine species. The garden is framed by the magnificent scenery of the Gran Paradiso massif.

How to visit Paradisia
Period of greatest flowering from mid-June to mid-July, depending on the season.
Tourist accommodation is provided in collaboration with the Bioma Association and the Park Guides.
Guided tours take place daily at set times, reservations are appreciated for groups.
Other activities are planned, such as thematic guided tours and nature games, according to the schedule drawn up by the Fondation each season.

The visit can also be made independently by each visitor, as a small brochure with the main characteristics of the garden is provided at the entrance. Each plant is accompanied by a card with its name, the yellow cards indicate the plants present in Italy (Alps and Apennines), the white cards indicate exotic plants (i.e. from other mountain groups around the world), the red cards indicate medicinal plants (if they bear the death symbol, the poisonous ones). Explanatory panels illustrate the various thematic areas in the garden.

History and purpose

Paradisia, whose name does not derive, as one is easily led to believe, from the Gran Paradiso massif, but from the Mountain Lily (Paradisea liliastrum, a liliacea with delicate white flowers that grows wild in the surrounding meadows), was set up in 1955 at the behest of the Gran Paradiso National Park Board of Directors in order to enhance its flora.

The didactic-disclosure aspect is fundamental for Paradisia, in fact tourists can get closer to the plants they might encounter during an excursion, compare them with similar ones, learn their scientific name and geographical distribution and thus learn to respect them. At the same time, the garden can be a valuable reference point for botanists and naturalists in their research activities. In addition, every year Paradisia collects seeds both within the garden and in the wild, and compiles a catalogue (Index Seminum) with which exchanges are made with gardens and botanical gardens all over the world.

What you can visit

Paradisia is home to more than 1,000 different species, all collected in the wild or obtained from seed in the nursery attached to the garden itself. In addition, to satisfy the growing interest in the natural world, some patches of natural environments have been reconstructed with the plant associations that characterise them (pseudo-steppe, peat bog, detrital environment, alneto). The petrographic exhibition collects and illustrates some samples of the most significant rocks of the Cogne Valley and other areas of the Park. The exhibition of lichens, which spontaneously colonise a series of large boulders and are maintained thanks to the favourable environmental conditions and the almost total lack of pollution, is unique in its kind, bringing tourists closer to these curious living beings, an example of symbiosis between a fungus and an alga. The butterfly garden is an itinerary, in the upper part of the garden, dedicated to these insects that play a very important role as pollinators of the mountain flora. An area dedicated to the most commonly used medicinal plants in the Park's valleys is also being completed; with the help of explanatory panels, visitors will be able to recognise the main species used in the medicinal, cosmetic, liqueur and culinary sectors.