Descrizione
“The Dolomites are widely considered to be among the most beautiful mountain landscapes in the world. Their intrinsic beauty derives from a variety of spectacular vertical conformations - such as pinnacles, spiers and towers - which contrast with horizontal surfaces - such as ledges, crags and plateaus - and which rise abruptly from extensive deposits of debris and gentle and undulating hills.
The great diversity of colors is caused by the contrasts of bare rock and pastures and forests. These mountains rise in peaks interposed with gorges, remaining isolated in some places or forming boundless panoramas in others. Some rocky cliffs rise more than 1,600m and are among the tallest limestone walls in the world.
The characteristic scenery of the Dolomites has become the archetype of the 'Dolomite landscape'. The pioneers of geology were the first to be captured by the beauty of these mountains: their writings, and subsequent pictorial and photographic works, further highlight the extraordinary aesthetic appeal of all the good ".
UNESCO, Declaration of Outstanding Universal Value, criterion VII: contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance.
The Dolomite landscape is broken down into its main landscape units to highlight the most recurrent and recognizable elementary structures of the whole region. These landscape units are the result of genetic and aesthetic relationships, that is, the very close relationship between the geological origin, the morphological structure and the nature of the stands.
The characteristic morphological components of this landscape can be identified according to a vertical succession (from bottom to top):
- large, gently undulating bases, of polygenetic origin;
- imposing detrital cloaks that envelop the base of the carbonate buildings;
- horizontal structural elements that interrupt the rock walls, creating large balconies and strong color contrasts;
- large, perfectly vertical rock masses, white and very varied in shape, which suddenly rise from the ground (energy of the relief).
These morphological characters are associated with the characteristics of the stands, which add to the basic morphology other landscape values such as biodiversity, the variety of natural habitats and the richness of plant associations, the variations in density and color due to seasonality.
In this high mountain area, the stands are included in the two altitudinal bands corresponding to the climatic zones located close to and beyond the limit of the arboreal vegetation. The first corresponds to coniferous forests and subalpine shrubs; to the second the alpine meadows and the various plant associations that affect cliffs and debris, many of which are exclusive to the Dolomites.
The overall layout of the landscape is in any case dynamic and depends on natural and human factors.
More information on the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation website: www.dolomitiunesco.info