Monte Baldo Historical Timeline

Origins

The ridge is a long limestone anticline running north-south, lifted alongside the trench the glacier gouged to make the lake.

Turning points

During the ice ages the summit ridge stood above the ice sheets that covered the surrounding valleys. Plants there were never scraped away, and the mountain became a refugium -- a survival pocket for a flora that vanished elsewhere.

Influential people

Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century botanists came here deliberately, and the mountain acquired its reputation as Hortus Europae, the garden of Europe. A number of species carry baldensis in their names because they were first described from this ridge.

Cultural evolution

The mountain was worked as summer pasture for centuries, and the malghe along the ridge are still in use.

Present-day significance

The cable car from Malcesine, with its rotating cabins, opened the summit ridge to people who would never otherwise reach 1,800 metres. Much of the mountain is now protected as a nature reserve.