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This vegetal cathedral was built at the foot of Monte Arera, in the Orobie Bergamasche Park. This majestic work of environmental art was conceived by Giuliano Mauri, but built by his family after his death in 2010. It’s an imposing vegetal Cathedral, consisting of five naves, 42 columns, 1.800 fir poles for the structure, 600 chestnut branches, 1.690 ft of hazel branches, and 42 beeches – all joined by flexible wood, pegs and nails, according to the ancient art of weaving. The growing young beech trees will eventually replace the wooden structure.

Known as “the wood weaver”, Giuliano Mauri was the first Italian artist of the International ART IN NATURE movement; he built vegetal structures designed to strengthen the bond between man and nature while respecting the latter’s wellbeing by limiting the impact of man’s creations with the surrounding environment.
His works, created exclusively with natural resources, live and follow the natural life cycle, without changing the landscape, but entering into an intimate relationship with it: for this reason, Mauri’s style has nothing to do with Land Art.

Mauri conceived his first vegetal cathedral in the 1980s, aiming to restore the bond between man and his territory. In 2001, he managed to build it at Arte Sella (in Borgo Valsugana, Trento); the second one, started by the artist and completed by his Mauri family in 2010, can be found in Parco delle Orobie (Bergamo), in a more secluded environment; the third cathedral is in Lodi, along the Adda River. The artist’s legacy is now kept alive and promoted and by the Giuliano Mauri Foundation.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)