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Established in 1922, Gran Paradiso National Park is the oldest Italian National Park together with the Abruzzo National Park (which was established a little later).

Managed by its own administration, it straddles Valle d’Aosta and Piedmont, while on the French side borders with Vanoise National Park. It covers an area of 175.000 acres, on mainly alpine terrain.
The park occupies part of the Gran Paradiso Royal Hunting Reserve, created by the young King Vittorio Emanuele II in 1856: he had gone hunting there in 1850 and had highly appreciated the whole area.

In 2000, it was also recognized as a Site of Community Interest (SIC) and it is now part of the “Important Bird Area Gran Paradiso”. In 2006, the park was awarded the European Diploma of Protected Areas – a most prestigious recognition, renewed also in 2012.

The territory

Gran Paradiso is the only mountain massif that rises over 13.123 entirely in the Italian territory. The park includes five valleys: Val di Rhèmes, Val di Cogne, Valsavarenche, Valle dell’Orco, and Val Soana. The limit of perennial snow is located at about 9.842 ft above sea level. The altitude range between 9.842 and 13.123 ft above sea level includes 59 glaciers, the largest found on Valle d’Aosta side – at least 29 of them are constantly monitored by park rangers: they are perennial glaciers but relatively recent, as they formed during the “little glaciation” in 1600.

The park is rich in lakes (including Nivolet Lakes – the largest and most evocative, located in the area surrounding Colle del Nivolet – Lake Pellaud in Val di Rhèmes, Lake Lillet in Valle dell’Orco, Lake of Dres, on the opposite side of Valle dell’Orco, Lake Lauson and Lake Loie, in Val di Cogne, as well as streams and waterfalls (the most spectacular are those of Lillaz, a hamlet of Cogne).

The flora

At the lower altitudes, the vegetation is characterized by larch forests, grasslands, broad-leaved woods of European aspens (Populus tremula), hazels (Corylus avellana), sweet cherry trees (Prunus avium), sycamore maples (Acer pseudoplatanus), oaks (Quercus spp.), chestnuts (Castanea sativa), ashes (Fraxinus excelsior), birches (Betula spp.), and rowans (Sorbus aucuparia). The beech woods (Fagus sylvatica) between 2.624 and 3.937 ft, are found only on the Piedmont side.

Between 4.921 and 6.562 ft, there are coniferous forests; in Val di Rhemès, the Swiss stone pine (Pinus cembra) is quite widespread, while in Val di Cogne, near Vieyes, Sylvenoire and Chevril, silver firs (Abies alba) are abundant.
Norway spruce ( Picea abies) and larch (Larix europaea) are the species widespread in all the valleys, the latter featuring a thick undergrowth of rhododendrons (Rhododenrum ferrugineum), blueberries (Vaccinium myrtillus), raspberries (Rubus ideaus), woodland geraniums (Geranium sylvaticum), and wild strawberries (Fragaria vesca).

Among the most valuable flower species, there are martagon lilies (Lilium martagon), typical of the wood, orange lilies (Lilium croceum), mostly in the sunny meadows, and the poisonous monk’s hood (Aconitum napellus) along the waterways. Between the highest belt of the woods and 7.217 ft, there are vast expanses of rhododendrons (Rhododenrum ferrugineum).

Above 8.202 ft, among the rocks, there is saxifrage (Saxifraga spp.), alpine rock-jasmine (Androsace alpina), the alpine chickweed (Cerastium alpinum), glacier buttercup (Ranunculus glacialis) and, extremely rare, edelweiss (Leontopodium alpinum), and wormwood (Artemisia spp.). Peat bogs and wetlands are colonized by Scheuchzer’s cottongrass (Eriophorum scheuchzeri), which blooms in the summer.