Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park covers a surface area of 150,000 hectares. It is one of the largest parks in Italy. It offers a number of proposals, itineraries and visits for every season thanks to the richness of its habitats, its massifs, and thanks to the charming historical-architectonical evidences it preserves. The Park consists of three mountain groups: Gran Sasso d'Italia chain, Laga massif, and Gemelli Mountains. The Park is also characterized by the presence of the highest peak of the Apennines, Corno Grande (2,912 meters). On this chain there is the one and only glacier of the Apennines, the so-called Calderone, which is also the southernmost glacier in Europe.
Inhabited since millennia, the territory safeguarded today by Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park preserves traces and evidences of great historical-cultural value.
A very rich and varied heritage going from the Neolithic Age to the Italic and Roman period, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, integrating finds, archaeological sites, castles, fortified villages, churches, abbeys, hermitages and mills.
A very rich and varied heritage going from the Neolithic Age to the Italic and Roman period, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, integrating finds, archaeological sites, castles, fortified villages, churches, abbeys, hermitages and mills.
Among the place you can meet while visiting the vast area of the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park, we suggest you to include in your itinerary the visit of Capestrano and its famous Capestrano Warrior, a symbol of Abruzzi and its identity, Rocca Calascio one of the highest castle in europe and Castel del Monte with its fashinating ancient trails of transhumance.
These point of interest are all in the province ofl'Aquila, so we suggest also a day trip to L'Aquila, the beautiful medieval city that fascinates tourists with its "immortal" beauties like churches ( Collemaggio, San Bernardino, il Duomo), its fountains ( 99 cannelle among all) , its lanes and squares.
From an environmental point of view, the Gran Sasso e Monti della Laga National Park offers to its visitors, unique lanscapes and wide variety of flora and fauna, including many endemic species.
With 2,364 recorded species, Gran Sasso-Laga Park is one of the European protected areas with the greatest biodiversity. The most precious floral features are without a doubt linked to the highest summits, where the so-called "glacial relicts" still survive: they are endemic species like Androsace Mathildae, Adonis distorta, the violet of the Majella, the edelweiss of the Apennines, Artemisia petrosa, and many species of saxifrages.
It is also possible to find some endemic species at lower altitudes, like Goniolimon italicum or Astragalus aquilani, exclusive of this area. Moreover, on the slopes of Gran Sasso, you can observe in spring the wonderful Pheasant's Eye, a species which was considered extinct for a long time and which forms here the one and only station in Italy.
The animal which is also the Gran Sasso-Laga Park symbol is the Abruzzi chamois. After one hundred years of extinction, a reintroduction project has brought this animals back to the mountains of Gran Sasso, where today about 500 heads live. The wildlife heritage of the protected area also includes other big herbivores like Red Deer and Deer, as well as their main predator, the Wolf of the Apennines.
The Gran Sasso-Laga Park is with no doubt one of the best example of sustainable development in the Abruzzi, as on the italian model of national parks, the nature is perfectly integrated with the human presence in a vast area of the park. Sustainable development doesn't consist in the only preservation and protection of the environmental heritage, but also of the preservation of local tradition and culture which are conserved during centuries as a priceless treasure to be kept with attention , as well as the natural environment for the future's generations.
The Gran Sasso-Laga Park is with no doubt one of the best example of sustainable development in the Abruzzi, as on the italian model of national parks, the nature is perfectly integrated with the human presence in a vast area of the park. Sustainable development doesn't consist in the only preservation and protection of the environmental heritage, but also of the preservation of local tradition and culture which are conserved during centuries as a priceless treasure to be kept with attention , as well as the natural environment for the future's generations.
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