The Dolomites – for many, the most beautiful mountains in the world

Since time immemorial the Dolomites have charmed humanity 

Dino Buzzati Traverso (1906-1972), a writer, journalist and painter originally from Belluno, loved the mountains and particularly the Dolomites, in whose shadow he was born and raised. Almost all his best-known writings were influenced by this passion. As a painter, Dino Buzzati was able to express his great admiration for the calcite mountains of northeast Italy, painting, for example, the Duomo of Milan in the form of a dolomite mountain – jagged, full of spires and sharply pointed towers.

The great writer from Vicenza Mario Rigoni Stern (1921-2008), known to his readers as the “the Sergeant”, was one of the first to sign the 1993 manifesto of the Mountain Wilderness environmental association, which sought the recognition of the Dolomites as a “World Monument”. In an open letter addressed to schools in the Veneto Region, Mario Rigoni Stern, speaking of the beauty of the mountain landscape and its great value, wrote, “Did you know that we have the most beautiful mountains on Earth right here? They are the Dolomites.”

Scientifically speaking, as early as the 18th century the mountains, because of their characteristic colorful rock stratifications and because of their countless fossils of prehistoric animals, became a favorite area for researchers. The area drew geologists, experts in mineralogy and the best-known geographers of the time, from around the world. They were the ones who analyzed the unique quality of the mountains’ rock composition and began to study the development  of these imposing, jagged mountains that are light in color and sometimes reddish as well. The Italian scientist Giovanni Arduino (1714–1795), the French Déodat de Dolomieu (1750–1801) and the German Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) are only some of the well-known scientists who have studied the Dolomites at close range. Déodat de Dolomieu was the one who, in 1790, analyzed the mineral and chemical composition of dolomite rock. Since that time it has been called “dolomite.”  In 1864, the British painter Josiah Gilbert and another Englishman and naturalist, George Churchill, published a report on their voyage titled “The Dolomite Mountains”. The name, however, didn’t stick until after World War I, when the territory became part of the Kingdom of Italy.

Toward the end of the 19th century, the Dolomites saw numerous pioneering activities; the mountains were an excellent area for experimentation of various kinds. Bold British noblemen were the first to conquer the sharp peaks, the jagged summits and the sheer cliffs of the Dolomites. They were followed by Hapsburg climbers who wrote the most important chapters in the history of Dolomite mountain climbing.

Great climbers like the Viennese Paul Grohmann (1838–1908), the first to climb to the top of Tofana de Rozes and Mount Cristallo near Cortina d’Ampezzo, the Sassolungo in Val Gardena and the Three Peaks of Lavaredo in the Sesto Dolomites, loved these mountains and wrote about them in numerous publications.

The Austrian Emil Zsigmondy (1861–1885) was also a pioneer in the history of Dolomite mountain climbing. He described them as a “delicious gem in the Alps”. The Lake Garda mountain climber, actor, and movie director Luis Trenker (1892-1990), who was born in Ortisei at the foot of the inimitable Sassolungo, documented his passion for these mountains in numerous books and films, which became known worldwide. Thanks to Trenker, the rocky shapes of the Dolomites became known for the first time on an international level.

Finally there is the “king of the eight-thousanders,” Reinhold Messner. Since childhood he has loved the Dolomites. From the window of his house in Val di Funes he could admire the Odle Mountains and may have understood from the start that the mountains would always be with him. Messner has conquered all the highest mountains on the planet, but there has always been a soft spot in his heart for the Dolomites: “They are not the highest, but they are certainly the most beautiful mountains in the world”.

Majestic cliffs, tall sharp peaks, impassible overhangs and jagged summits. The variety of forms and colors and of the valleys that cross the Dolomites, however, have not only charmed the great mountain climbers of history, but great artists as well. Le Corbusier (Switzerland-France 1887–1965), perhaps the greatest contemporary architect, saw in the Dolomites “the most beautiful natural architecture in the world”.